Legend of Zelda: Follow Me Down
by Super Sexy Saiyan
Summary: After the events in Ocarina of Time, Link was unknowingly sent back to his past to relive the next seven years in peace. However, Ganondorf isn't through with him just yet... Could rumors of an escalating army of people from a place known as Lorule be true? Find out now! (PS: This is not based on Link Between Worlds)
1. Chapter 1

Well, after nine months of contemplating what type of Zelda fanfiction I should do, I came up with this. I hope anyone reading it will like it and review. If you like it, I'll keep writing it! Thanks! -Liv

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My nightmare starts like this.

I'm running hard and fast through thick fog, panting rapidly, unable to see where I'm going.

Don't ask me why I'm running; I don't know. I can't remember. What I do know, however, is that if I stop running something bad is going to happen to me. Something real bad.

I continue to run, my feet feeling more and more like led every time I pick them off the ground. I try to stop myself from running, because my heart feels like it's going to explode right through my chest, but it's like I don't even have control over my own body. No matter how hard I try to slow myself, my body doesn't listen.

Talk about frustrating.

Over the loud thumping of my feet on the ground, I start to hear other footsteps echoing out behind me. The revelation causes my teeth to clench involuntarily. Apparently the part of me that keeps me running knows exactly the cause of those footsteps. It must be that bad thing that keeps me sprinting.

The footsteps behind me get louder and louder the more I try to run from it, no matter where I run to or how many sharp turns I make. My eyes start to water with the pain in my chest, the feeling of my heart pounding against my ribs, begging to slow down and take a breath. I yell at myself in my head to allow my body to do so, but some innate part of me doesn't allow for it.

Just when I think I'm going to keel over from exertion, I find that my feet are slowly returning to a slow jog and eventually a walk. I sigh in relief; I don't know how much more of that I could have handled.

Now that I'm back in full control of my body, I rack my brain for what I'm doing. Why was I running? Who was I running from? Where am I?

I can't answer any of those questions.

I clasp my hands behind my head, taking deep breaths to slow my steadying heart rate and look around. All I can see is the thick fog that swallows everything in its whiteness. I reach out with my hand and push it through the fog, only to see it disappear five inches in front of my face.

That's weird, I think. I've never seen fog this thick. I wonder where I am if there's this much fog?

A shiver runs down my spine. My stomach tightens into a knot and I slowly turn in a 360. Sweat drips from my forehead.

This... isn't fog. The thought makes me gulp. This is not fog. Because it's smoke.

Upon realizing this, my eyes suddenly start to burn as the fumes bite viciously at them. My lungs fill with the poison and I throw a hand over my mouth. It just got a lot harder to breathe.

I squint my eyes to try and protect them and take a few steps forward, wanting nothing more than to get out of this smoke. For some reason I know I'm not going to last very long like this.

I stifle a cough and trudge on, desperate to get out of this. In the distance, I begin to see tiny dark objects, and hope flares inside me. Finally, the smoke's thinning out. Finally I can breath again.

Once I reach the objects, I realize they aren't so tiny. They're statues at least two times bigger than me. I don't know what they're of, but I get a deep feeling I've seen them before even though I haven't. I think they're supposed to be representing some person, but most of the heads have been broken off and I can't see them anywhere close.

I walk through the row of the statues until a large wall looms in front of me, preventing me from going any further. I frown at it, scrutinizing over the intricate designs carved all over it. And oddly enough, there are thick chains wrapped around the wall, the likes of which are five times thicker than my torso.

I get it. It's not a wall. It must be a gate. And those chains are keeping things out.

Or, something _in_.

Without warning, the wall rumbles with great force. The ground shakes in response, making me fall to the ground. I land hard on my bottom and hands, a sharp pain promptly shooting through my entire arm followed by a loud _cr-r-rack_. I wince and bring the wrist to my face. It's already purple and swelling.

The ground shakes again and this time the wall shudders like something's pounding against it. That other part of me, that instinctive feeling controlling me earlier, silently warns me to move backwards which I do without question.

The wall shudders again, the chains rattling through the cold, empty air. I continue to back up until my back hits one of the statues and I can't move any further.

The wall quakes once more and large, twisting cracks begin to trace up and down the stone, breaking some of the designs and pictures apart. Like snaking rivers being carved into the earth, the cracks continue to run up and down the wall, like the whole thing is about to break and crumple at any moment.

Which it exactly what happens next. A scream escapes my throat and I throw my hands up as chucks of rubble fly all over, hitting and stinging my skin. My stomach sinks to my toes and sudden dread fills my every cell.

That wall wasn't supposed to break. I was supposed to prevent that from happening. This wasn't supposed to happen. This is all wrong!

Another scream builds and lodges in my throat as whatever that gate was keeping in steps forward, the whole ground tremoring intensely. I close my eyes and bite apart my tongue. That thing was huge. And it wasn't supposed to be let out. I was supposed to prevent it from getting out.

I failed.

The pain in my wrist etches through my whole body, paralyzing all my limbs and muscles. I failed, I failed, I failed. That thing is going to destroy everything. I failed. I failed. I...

I wake with the scream still in my throat.

My body's coated in sweat and I groan, peeling the blankets from the moisture. My heart is still racing, but at least now I know I'm safe. I'm in my bed, in my room. I'm okay.

I let out a breath I had no idea I was holding in and flop back onto my pillow. There goes some more wasted sleep I'll never get back. Man, hate when I have that nightmare. Because I never feel fully rested afterward. In fact, I feel more tired than I started out as. And I would know. I've only had that dream every night for the past month, or so it seems. Nd ever night before I go to bed I tell myself that if I have that dream, to wake myself up and out of it.

But does it work? Of course not. Once I'm in the dream, I feel like I'm stuck in it unable to escape.

Why can't I just wake myself up though? Why can't I just remind myself that I'm dreaming? Why can I never understand what I'm doing?

I roll these questions off with a sigh. I've already asked them to myself a thousand times each. Every time I ask them, I just get more frustrated and more confused and upset that my mind would dream something up like that.

All of a sudden, there's a loud pounding on my door. I sit upright, body rigid with fear, all the blood rushing in my ears.

Oh my good goddess, that thing's coming for me! It popped right out of my nightmare and now it's trying to finish what it couldn't before!

The door swings open and I scream before I actually spot what's standing there. Instantly, my body relaxes.

The devil – er I mean, Terrel – stands there, face twisted in a smirk.

"You're still in bed, I see," he says grinning.

"Thanks for the obvious," I grumble, rolling my eyes, still shaken from my scare. Leave it to Terrel to point out the blatant.

"You know, Auru's not going to like that." He leans up against the door frame. "You may even be fired."

I groan. Great, I totally forgot. I'm late for work, and judging by how bright it is in here, very late. As much as I hate to admit it, Terrel's right; Auru will not be pleased.

"You'd better get up. We've already had costumers," he says.

"Okay," I snap. "Just... give me a sec." I look at hi,, waiting for him to leave so I can get up and get dressed but he doesn't' move. I frown.

"Terrel, _leave_," I order. He gives a sharp laugh and turns too exit but not before muttering out, "Loser" like he can't resist. And if I know Terrel, he can't.

Once he's shut the door behind him, I let out a sigh of alleviation.

If I'd have known that when I left the Kokiri forest over seven years ago I'd be moving in with yet another bully, I would have taken the little one who guards trees. Not the guy my age who takes joy in half-sheeting my bed and looking for every excuse to get me in trouble.

Still, even though Terrel's a jerk, his father Auru (who isn't even a quarter as bad as Terrel) provided me with a place to live and a job at the mail office he owns. It's more than I could ask for, seeing as though I'd have no where else to go without this, even if it means putting up with his idiot son.

With a lazy grunt I heave myself from my bed and give an equally lazy look around my room. Man, I really should have cleaned my clothes when I was supposed to. Because ninety-nine percent of my clothes are strewn about my room, reeking of either sweat, dirt or a combination of both. I slap my forehead. Why do I have to be so lazy?

I open a drawer, praying that something might be there, and much to my surprise, there actually is. But I frown when I see what it is: a bright green tunic and skin-tight white leggings. I slump, dropping the clothes to the floor. Out of all the things that wouldn't be dirty, why this? It's almost as worse as wearing the nearest article of clothing which I went swimming in nearly three weeks ago and haven't bothered drying out.

Note to self: start doing laundry.

With an exasperated groan I pull my night shirt over my head and replace it with the arm leggings and green tunic. I pull on the tights with embarrassing difficulty and shove my feet into a pair of brown boots. Catching a reflection of myself in the broken mirror above my bed, I grimace. Messy blonde hair, face wrinkled from sleeping on it, droopy tired eyes. Well, it could be... worse.

I shrug it off and open my door, ready to leave my room when something catches my eye. It's a long green hat that hangs on a hook on my wall. I look at it then down to my tunic.

Why not?

I grab it and place it atop my head, satisfied with the fact that if I'm going to look like a dork, why not look like the complete dork?

I start off down the hall and down the stairs. At the bottom, chatter erupts from the main room used for work. I follow the voices until I'm standing in the door frame, watching Auru argue with an old man over the price of a standard shipment. I regard them as they bicker back and forth, my arms folded casually.

Finally the old man snatches his receipt from the counter and makes an inappropriate remark to which Auru responds with a cheerful, "Have a good day!"

Once the old man is gone, Auru's smile vanishes without a trace and and he turns to glare at me.

"Finally decide it's time to wake up, eh?" he criticizes.

"I could have slept longer given the chance," I say, taking a glance at Terrel who sits on the counter, arms folded, face totally smug.

"Good thing you weren't. Now!" He claps his hands together. "Good to see you're awake Link, but we have work to do! I'm going to go back and sort through some packages. You take my spot here for today, okay?"

I shrug. "Whatever you need," I say and step past him. His large meaty face turns into a smile before he ducks into the next room.

I sigh. I haven't even eaten breakfast yet but there's no point in pointing this out to Auru. It's not like he's mean or anything. In fact, he's the coolest, nicest, friendliest guy I pretty much know. He's just strict and doesn't like cooking breakfast for me five hours after breakfast time.

So I take his place behind the counter as another costumer walks in. I give the woman a zombiefied smile, just as I always do.

Once she's satisfied and left, I lean against the counter. Like I said, I'm thankful for the job and all but... does it have to be so painstakingly boring?!

"Hmph. You're lucky."

"Huh?" I turn to look at Terrel who looks back with choler.

"I said you are lucky. It's surprising Auru didn't fire you," he says, hoping to his feet.

"You would just love that, wouldn't you?" I say and he grins.

"Who wouldn't?"

"Jerk," I mutter.

"Loser," he mutters back.

I clench my fists to keep from saying anything else. Because Din knows, I so will.

Terrel laughs mockingly. "Poor little Kokiri midget can't think of anything else to say can he? Ha, figures. Kokiri's brains must be as small as they are!"

I whirl around, furious at his taunt. Rage bubbled through me at the mention of the word 'Kokiri,' the kids who shamed me and shunned me and then kicked me out when I was only seven. Even angering still is the fact that he referred to as one of them._ I'm not a Kokiri._

Just as I'm about to let my fist fly at Terrel's face, the bell above the door jingles, signaling an oncoming costumer. My hand drops from it's pose, inches away from Terrel's jaw and I smile warmly at the guy, like I wasn't just about to pound someone's lights out.

"Hello, how may I help you today?" I recite.

The person, however, does not return my smile. Instead he reaches behind his back and slams a package onto the counter. I look down at it.

"Would you like this delivered?" I ask, businesslike.

"Yes," he replies. "Immediately, if you can."

"I can get it to your destination as fast as I can depending on where it's going. Where is this headed?"

"Hyrule Castle," he says without missing a beat. "And I need it there by today. Before the sun sets, actually."

Both me and Terrel gape at the man. "Hyrule Castle?" I repeat. "I-I'm sorry but we don't ship there. You'll have to go through their shipping process."

He looks at me pleadingly. "Please. I need this transported immediately. To the Princess," he rasps.

I shrug apologetically. "I'm sorry. It's not under my control." The man clenches his jaw and looks to his feet. Then he pulls a sack attached to his leather cord belt. He dumps the contents on the counter. Countless rupees spill forth, clinking and shining against each other. My eyes widen.

"There," he says, folding up the sack. "Now, I ask, will you _please_ deliver this as soon as you can?"

I gape at all that money. Gosh, this guy's really persistent. Whatever is in this box must be pretty damned important. Still, there's the fact we aren't supposed to deliver packages to the castle. Security problems or whatever.

I look between the package and the rupees shining so brightly. I know what Auru would say. Rules are rules, no purchase.

But I'm not Auru. And that's a lot of money.

"Fine," I say, taking the package in both hands. It's surprising light. "I'll take this to the castle, like you want. But there's nothing... illegal in here, is there?" That's just what I need. Smuggle some dangerous bomb into the kingdom's most precious place. I'd be executed on the spot if I wasn't blown up first.

"Oh, no. I assure you it's absolutely safe. No harm will come to you or any others. Just please deliver it!" he begs.

"Okay, okay," I grouch, backing up a bit. "I'll bring this stupid thing to the castle."

"Thank you so much!" he beams, straightening out like a huge weight has lifted from his shoulders.

"We appreciate your business," I tell the man, putting the money into a container. "We hope you come again."

With his errand taken care of, the man strides out of the door, looking happier than when he came into the shop.

"Oooooh, Link, you're going to get into so much trouble if Auru finds out," breaths Terrel.

I glare at him. "He doesn't need to know. Which means you're not telling, got it?"

He holds up his hands, showing me his palms. "Whatever forest boy. It's not like I care anyway."

I bite my tongue to keep from screaming obscenities at the guy and take a deep breath. Terrel's just Terrel. Let him be a jerk.

"You know, I hope you plan on splitting that money with me," he says.

"Oh? Why would should I?" I ask disdainfully. "I'm the one who has to deliver it."

"Because if you don't, I'm going to tell Auru that you're breaking the rules and he'll fire you for sure this time! So split half with me!"

I grit my teeth. That's SO like Terrel. Blackmail me. And you know what's pathetic? It works.

"You hear me, Kokiri? Hello in there? Maybe your brain really is that small. It wouldn't be surprising!" he breaks into laughter.

"Shut up!"

I whirl on him, fist connecting with his shoulder. It his so hard he stumbles back a few paces, griping the spot where I slammed him. He pants a couple times, regarding me with a death stare mixed with startlement.

Okay, in my defense, he deserved it.

"Do not call me a Kokiri," I say sullenly. "I'm Hylian through and through. Just as much as you are, Terrel."

He gulps and nods several times. I know he's going to run off to Auru as soon as I'm not looking and blather on about how I "knocked his lights out" or how I "beat him within an inch of his life." But for the moment, I don't care. All I care about is the fact I got him to shut up. Thank Gods.

"Now," I say brightly. "I have a package to deliver."

I walk from behind the counter and Terrel backs away from me hurriedly. He's the same size as me, but not nearly as strong. I suppose he figures he cant block if I swing again. Not that I'm going to.

"Tell Auru I'm delivering a package to Kakariko and I'll be back in an hour, if he asks."

"Whatever," he says and mutters something under his breath I don't care to ask about.

Once I've left the shop, I take a deep breath. Despite the bore I get behind the counter, making deliveries is worth it. Especially since Terrel hardly ever accompanies me.

Castletown square is usually a busy place and today is no exception. People of all kinds hurry about on their business, from all corners of Hyrule. With the exception of the Kokiri, of course, who can't leave the forest and the Sheikah who would be lucky to catch a glimpse of anywhere.

I start off down the walkways passing people who either smile, nod, or disreguard me all together. I swear, people are getting less polite by the day.

I pass the fountain in the middle of the square, nearly tripping over a few kids who run in my path. They giggle happily as one chases the other, totally oblivious to anyone or anything around them. I find myself smiling.

"Remember when we were that little?"

I start at the voice and turn to see a familiar red-headed girl leaning against the fountain. My smile widens.

"Hey Malon!" I call cheerfully and walk to her. "How're you?"

Her mouth turns upwards and she says, "Perfect! Perfect, actually. You?"

"Oh you know, when you live with the best step-brother in all of Hyrule, how much more perfect can your day get?" I remark sarcastically. She purses her lips.

"That stupid kid bugging you again?" she demands, crossing her arms. "I bet you he is," she answers for herself. "Where is he? I think it's high time someone slapped some sense into that kid! Where is he?"

She stomps away from me but I grab her dress before she does. "Whoa, Malon, what are you doing?"

"Going to tell that kid to stop being such an uppity jerk!" she replies. "He deserves it!"

I chuckle. "That's exactly what I thought right after I punched him."

She stops trying to squirm from my grip and stares at me. "You... _punched_ him?"

I release her and cross my arms in satisfaction. "He pretty much shut up after I did. I don't think he'll be bugging me for awhile now."

Malon tries to look angry but the corners of her lips twitching tell me she isn't. "Link, you can't just punch people when you get upset by them."

"What? You're the one who wanted to slap him!" I cry.

"...I was going to verbally. Besides, I'm _much_ to nice to do that."

I smirk. "You're telling me."

She shoves me. "Hey, watch out Link. You don't want to upset me." Her twinkling blue eyes contradict her frowning face.

I grin brightly at her. "Maybe I do want to see you upset."

"You're horrible!" she jeers but smiles anyway. She pauses. "So, you out on a delivery?"

"Yup," I say and show her the package. "Some guy came in earlier. Said it was super important it got dropped off at the castle."

"To the _princess_?" she says a little too loudly, causing people to stop and stare. She looks at them self-consciously and says "What? Carry on!" People lower their heads and keep walking.

I frown at my fire-haired friend. "Princess? I never said anything about the princess."

She stares at me blankly before blushing. "You didn't? Oh, silly me. I could have sworn... ANYWAY, err, why the castle?"

"I dunno. Cuz the guy felt like it?" I reply. She looks at me unimpressed.

"Well, I don't want to keep you from your job," she says flatly, the enthusiasm in her voice anything but present. "You should be on your way."

"Yeah but... I have all day. You sure you don't want to hang out or anything right now? I mean..." I trail off as she looks at me.

"Just go do your job, Link," she says. "But... come by my place afterwards. There's... there's something I want to tell you, okay?"

I give her a thumbs-up. "Sure thing, Malon. I'll be sure to make is super quick then!" I smile at her. "See you later!"

She waves at me as I walk away and I turn too soon to see the sad expression she gives me once my back's turned.


	2. Chapter 2

Oh my gosh! Thank you to all my followers and thanks to Quomimi for reviewing! Here's chapter two! Chapter three will come tomorrow... :) Thanks and review!

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Halfway through castle town, I suddenly get a grand idea. Why am I even walking?

I reach into the pouch attached to my belt and pull out a small brown ocarina I was given by the one and only Kokiri that was ever nice to me, right before I left the forest. _Saria, _I think as I look at the small instrument. I wonder if she still remembers me...

I press the mouthpiece to my lips and begin to play.

Only three soft notes breath from the ocarina when I hear the familiar whinnying I knew I'd hear. I look up and see a large roan figure barreling at me, not stopping for anything. Well, almost anything.

I break into a smile and Epona halts at my side, nickering more than happily.

"Hey there girl!" I say, patting her silky neck. "How's my horse been lately?"

She whinnies and presses her nose to my pocket. I laugh. "Sorry, I don't have anything for you. But after this I'll give you all the carrots I own."

Epona neighs at that and shakes her hair. I reach a hand up and secure it on the reins before pulling myself into the saddle. Once I'm seated, I grin at the people who are gawking at me and salute them. "I'll be here all day," I call and take hold of Epona's reins, giving her a kick and then we're off.

As we race through the streets of Castletown, knocking people back against walls and almost running over a few, I keep my eyes trained on the castle up ahead. I'll just dump this thing off and I'll be happily on my way with a bunch of cash I have no intention of sharing with Terrel. Fast, easy, simple, right?

Finally, I reach the dirt path leading to the castle. I waste no time in getting off Epona and bidding her goodbye.

"I'll be back, girl, okay?" I say. "Then we're going to Malon's!" Epona whinnies when she hears that and I laugh, scratching her behind her ears, where she likes it the most. My nudges my back as if to say 'Hurry up!' and I pat her once more before walking off down the path.

As I jog through the dirt, I hardly notice the dark shape that passes overhead, blotting out the sunlight as it hurtles down at me. One second I'm running on slid ground and the next – I'm flailing all over the ground, trying to heave off the heavy thing that's pinning me in the dirt.

"Hey, get off!" I shout angrily, clawing at whatever my nails can find. Instantly, the thing backs off.

I sit up, spitting dirt out of my mouth. "Blehhhhh..." I run my hand across my tongue.

"...Link?!"

I look up at my name, hand wedged halfway in my mouth. I immediately take it out.

"Sheik!" I gasp, recognizing my purple body-suited friend. "Oh man, I haven't seen you in forever!" But then my happiness gives way to annoyance as my head begins to throb. "...Was it necessary to use me as your fall brace?"

He shakes his head. "Didn't mean to. You simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Gee, great apology, Sheik. Real sincere," I groan and stand up.

"I am sorry," he says, following suit. "I didn't mean to land on you. Happy?"

"Extremely," I reply, brushing sand from my tunic. I stretch my back, satisfied with the crunch it gives off. "Where've you been forever, man? I'd just begun thinking you'd gone and passed. What's the Sheik been up to?"

He regards me with an unresponsive type of look. "Stuff." I roll my eyes.

"My best friend leaves for five months and when I see him again, he nearly kills me and says he's been doing 'stuff.' Gods, I think it's time I got new friends."

"I didn't know you had any to begin with," he says and even though his eyes are squinty like he's laughing underneath that shawl of his, I'm not so sure.

"Shut up," I mumble. "Besides, what're you doing here by the castle?"

"I could ask you the same," he replies curtly. I roll my eyes, picking the package I dropped off the ground.

"I have business here. So I'm actually supposed to be here. Unlike you. Jumping around ledges. Seems like _someone's_ sneaking around."

If he wasn't covering half his face, I could swear he'd be blushing. "I have every right as you to be here if I want," he says. "It's not like I'm in the gate or anything."

"True. Still. You need an audience with the princess?" I give him a crooked grin.

He shifts uncomfortably. "No. I was just... just... training." He pulls his arm into a stretch. "You know how us Sheikah like to stay in shape."

"Uh-huh," I say unimpressed. Ten rupees says he made that up on the spot. No, I'm pretty much certain he did. I just hate it when Sheik makes stuff up like this – which is pretty much always. Sometimes I think he's a criminal on the run, showing up in random places, disappearing one second later. I grunt. That's probably true.

"Speaking of training, you don't work out much, do you?" he jabs at my stomach contemptuously. I swat him away.

"I do too!" I bark defensively. "Why just today I bench-pressed five reps of twenty!"

He narrows his red eyes and shakes his head knowingly. I blow air out of my mouth and cross my arms.

"Okay, fine. Maybe I _don't_ work out, but I'm not fat. And you know what? I don't –– HEY!" I break off and look at my Sheikah friend who's snickering to himself. "Hey, what's so funny Sheik?"

"Oh nothing. It's just that you can hardly fit in that tunic like you used to be able to." As soon as the words leave his mouth, he stops snickering and looks at me suddenly.

I look at him right back.

"I've never worn this stupid thing in my life, Sheik. Not only is it hideous but ridiculous. When have you seen me in it?"

He clears his throat. "I meant to say you hardly fit in it like you're supposed to. It looks small."

I roll my eyes passively. "Okay, now that we're done assessing my weight, I have to get yo the castle. As in, right now." I look up to the sun which has already changed positions from the time I left the shop.

"Wait, you're delivering that to the castle?" he asks.

"No. I just decided to walk this way because I feel like it," I snap sarcastically. "Of course the Castle!"

And odd look takes over his face. "Is it for the princess?"

"...Yeah, it is." I blink. "How'd you know?"

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Oka–– Wait, what?"

He stretches his arm behind his back. "You heard me. If you're going into the castle, I'm coming too."

"No, Sheik, you aren't. This is _my_ job. So, go do whatever Sheikah do when they aren't poking their noses in other people's business," I say, crossing my arms.

"I think there's a way in over there if you just climb –– "

"I guess there's no point in arguing with you, is there?" I cut him off. He flashes me a grin.

"Nope. Best friends stick together, right? Besides, I've been to the castle before. I can get you to the princess's room easy. You couldn't get passed the first guard without my help."

I groan, not wanting to admit he's probably right. "Whatever. Just loose the swollen-headed attitude and hurry up."

He leads me over to a patch of vines covering a wall, leading upwards. We climb silently, me trying to hold the package under my chin (which is twenty times harder than it sounds.)

At the top, the ground's suddenly swept out from under me. My head throbs and I stumble a few steps, numbly aware I'm this close to the edge. _I-I've done this before..._

When I stop swaying, I blink a few times. Have I? Have I done this before? I don't think I have. At least, I don't remember doing it. Weird, I could have sworn I have...

"Are you okay?" Sheik's looking at me worriedly.

"Uh... yeah. I am, I just..." I consider telling him but decline. "Just a little nauseous all of a sudden."

"Probably the climb," he answers, but his eyes linger on me for a few more seconds. "C'mon, follow me."

He leads me to the top of the gate and then down a ladder and into a hidden room in the gate before stopping to look at me.

"There's guards right outside. You're going to have to sprint up the hill and race to the ledge across the garden. Meet me there."

I turn to him, about to tell him that's a stupid plan, but he's vanished. I grind my teeth. Shoulda known. When has Sheik ever stuck with me through anything? Let's see, hmmmm... Never?

I put my hand on the knob and slowly twist the door open, looking out the crack. Sheik was right. There's two guards, bu they're a bit away by a pile of rocks, and they don't seem to be looking this way.

With the as much stealth as I'm going to get, I step outside into the sunlight, sticking close to the wall. I look around me in a hurry, to see is there's anything to hide behind but there's nothing. Nothing at freaking all. Okay. Well. This was a stupid idea. Thanks a lot Sheik.

Before I'm spotted, I convulse and sprint up the opposite hill as fast as I can. I check around me and see the two guards, but they're facing the opposite direction now.

Without giving them the pleasure to spot and arrest me, I make way to the other grass covered wall, just as Sheik said.

At the top, none other than Mr. Self-Important stands there, golden harp in hand. He plays a few notes before saying, "Only took you five years," without looking up.

"Pssh, puh-leeze. Does it look like I'm some creepy Sheikah who can disappear on a whim? Us Hylians can't do crap like that. So shut it."

He puts his harp away and looks over the edge of the ledge. I look over his shoulder. Down below, a moat flows silently past, looking about as inviting as a lake of lava. Sheik looks at me.

"You ready for a swim?"

I show him the package. "How am I supposed to swim with this?"

He looks at it then up to me. "I don't know."

"Great." I look at the brown box and bite my lip. Well...

Before I loose whatever motivation I have, I hold the box over my head and plunge into the icy water. Seconds later, Sheik lands next to me and I look to him before nodding. Together, we swim through the moat, me one-handedly due to the package I'm trying to hold above my head.

At the other side, I throw the package out onto the ground and heave myself out, panting hard. So maybe Sheik was right: I'm not in shape.

Sheik helps me to my feet, looking like he hardly lost his breath, and pats my back. "Ready? Let's go."

I frown at him. "Let my catch my breath for a second, please." I bend over and pick the package up before shoving it into my belt. "Lead the way, Master Sheik."

Together we walk to another door, this one very well hidden amongst the stones and bricks. Only one issue: it's sealed shut.

"Stand back," Sheik directs and I do so. I watch as he holds his hand out and lays it across the door. He closes his eyes and after a few brief moments, he pulls his hand away. I stare at him.

"Ummm?"

"Try the door."

I pull on the knob, but it remains shut. I glare at Sheik. "I guess you can't do magic, can you?"

He pulls on the door himself. "I swear... that should've worked..."

I cross my arms. "Well it didn't. Have any other ideas?"

He stops tugging on the door and leans against it. "Not if you don't."

I glance upwards at the tower the door was concealed in and notice some of the bricks are uneven, almost like a ladder...

"Great idea Link!" Sheik says, looking up too. "Come on, we can climb up!"

"Wait, I wasn't being serious! I–– " He's already stated climbing. I roll my eyes and start up after him. It's not and easy task. Some of the footholds are not even big enough to hold my whole foot so at times I'm just dangling my my finger tips.

After climbing forever, and scraping my hands up in the process, we get to the top. I land on my back, groaning at how much my hands hurt. Sheik takes one of them and examines it.

"It's not that bad," he says smoothly. "It'll heal in three days or so."

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one in pain!" I touch the palm of my left hand and wince. "I think it might be infected or something."

"Then let's hurry up so you can go home and fix it," he replies.

"I'm going to Malon's after this. Maybe she can help fix my hands seeing as though _you_ won't," I spit. Sheik stiffens.

"Malon? Why her house?"

"Because she's someone who probably actually cares if I'm in pain. Plus she said she needed to talk to me about something." I grin at him. "I bet she tells me that she likes me."

Sheik's eyes widen. "Er... w-what?"

I hold my hands to my heart. "Of course that's what she wanted to say! Confess her profound love for me! Profess that her heart aches every time she's not around me." My eyes drift up to the clouds streaked with orange.

"Uh, Link.. er... I don't think..."

"And then we'll share true loves kiss and we'll get married and live happily ever after forever and ever and ever!" I finish, looking at Sheik. "What do you think?"

Sheik's face drains of color. "I don't know what to think."

I laugh and shove him. "Dude, I'm kidding. She probably just wanted to give me more Lon Lon Milk or something."

Sheik lets out a breath. "Oh... oh yeah." He laughs stiffly. "Good one Link."

I look to the ground. "Not that I'd mind if that's what she told me." Sheik looks at me. "Well, I mean, I have known her forever, ever since I left the forest and..." I trail off and blush. "Why am I even telling you this?"

He shrugs. "I don't know." He pauses awkwardly. "Anyway, we should get a move on. It'll be sunset soon."

I look at the sun which is dipping low into the horizon. "You're right. Well, you said you know your way around the castle so I'll just follow you."

Together we sprint across the roof top and jump down onto the main building of the castle. While Sheik lands perfectly, I stumble and land clumsily on my knees and hands. Brushing it off, we continue along the roof of the castle, climbing up more walls and pathways cut into the stone palace itself. Eventually I stop abruptly and Sheik bumps into me from behind.

"Dude!" he hisses. "Let me know next time you're going to stop."

I look at him, my mouth turned in a frown. "How come you're not leading?"

He looks at me like he just now notices I'm not the one following and he's not the one leading. His eyes narrow. "I don't know. You tell me."

I look around me and blink a few times. That same swaying feeling of déjà vù washes over me and I lean against a wall for support. Why _was_ I leading?

"It doesn't matter. There's not many ways you can even go up here," Sheik says. "You were just following the only way you could go."

I nod, only half listening. That could be true, but I get the sense it isn't. I don't know why.

"We're close to the Princess's room," Sheik says, interrupting my thoughts. "It's just up there." He points up to a window high above us. "But this is as far as I'm getting you. The elders were expecting me back a while ago. They'll be as mad as it already is."

"So you aren't coming with me?" I ask. "You insist on coming with me but you have to leave right before we're done?"

"Sorry Link. Unless you want to come with me back to the elders and explain your the one who kept me out longer than I was supposed to..."

"Fine," I say. "I'll just climb up there and give this package to the princess. Right. Easy."

"Precisely," he answers.

"I was being sarcastic," I say.

"Either way. Good luck Link. I'll swing by the shop tomorrow. We can go piss some Gerudos off okay?"

"Sounds like fun," I answer glumly. "See you later, Sheik."

He blinks at me once before chucking a handful of deku seeds to the ground and vanishing into the brilliant smoke they create.

I stare up at that window high above me that must be the Princess's window. Well, here goes nothing.

As I climb, I bite back the pain in my hands and focus on going higher and higher. Once my fingers find the glass of the window, I slam my fist into it. The windows knocks loose, spinning in its frame and I pull myself into it.

I land in a heap on a desk, knocking a bunch of stuff all over the ground, and inevitably making a bunch of noise in the process. I roll off the desk and land on the carpet, looking upwards. It's silent in here, which is a good thing because it'd just be rude to barge in here like a madman and scare the princess half to death. Not that breaking into her castle is any better.

I stand up and pull the package from my belt, and examine it. It looks only half as good as when it started out. Oh well. It's not my problem anymore.

Someone behind me gasps.

I drop the package onto the desk with a start and turn to the voice, ready to karate-chop on command. But every thought of mine throws itself out my head as I lay eyes on this woman.

Silky blonde hair showers elegantly down her shoulders, framing deep powder blue eyes and a flawless face. Her body is thinly covered with a nightdress that she obviously chose thinking no one would see her. Sweat coats her face and neck, and she looks flushed like she just ran.

The breath leaves my mouth with a hiss between my teeth as I marvel at this breathtaking, radiant woman.

That feeling of déjà vù that's been persistently tugging at the back of my mind all day resurfaces but as I gaze upon the Princess, I push it away. If I met this girl before, trust me, I know I'd remember.

Her mouth pops open suddenly and a scream flies out from behind her lips. She reaches over to her extraordinarily large vanity and begins picking things up and chucking them at me. For a girl who's probably never done a thing for herself in her life, she sure is strong and her aim is extremely accurate. I duck to avoid perfume bottles flying at my head and body. The whole time she's screaming and I'm yelling and bottles are breaking and I know some guards going to come running any minute now and I'm going to be in big trouble, when she suddenly drops the bottle she was holding.

"Oh great Hylia... Link?!"

I look up at her. "Well, thanks for... How do you know my name?"

her eyes widen and she turns, slamming her door shut. She looks at me over her shoulder and rushes to my side. "Link," she whispers harshly. "You can't be here. You need to leave right now." She takes my hand and leads me to the open window. "Right now. You need to get out of here."

I dig my feet into the ground, staring at this crazy princess. "What are you talking about? And how do you know my name?"

"I am so sorry, Link, but I can't explain. Just go home and forget this ever happened." She puts her small hands on my back and begins shoving me out the window.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I protest, grabbing the ledge to steady myself. "You can't push my out the window! Do you know how high this is? Besides, I have a package for you!

She stops shoving me momentarily, only to look at me with curiosity. "You do?"

I shove her hands off me. "Yes," I hiss. "I do." I present her with the wretched package and she takes it in her hands gingerly. She bites her lip.

"Why's it wet?"

"Because I went swimming. Got a problem, Princess? I just risked betting guillotined to give you this and all you do is criticize how I got it here," I say, probably not nice enough to being speaking to a princess. But I'm so tired and fed up with this that I could care less.

She looks into my eyes. "Thank you Link. I'm glad you brought it to me." Her face hardens. "Leave now."

"What?! B-But you can't just–– " I break off as she shoves me once more trying to hurl me out her castle to my death.

Only she never gets the chance….


	3. Chapter 3

Oh my gosh, thanks to my followers and my readers :3 I stayed up so late typing this last night. (I was up till three-thirty) So I sincerely hope you guys like this chapter. It's kinda long but, oh well. It starts the action! Enjoy!

* * *

Behind me and Zelda, the door to the room slams open with a resounding _bang_ and in steps a figure, silhouetted by light streaming around them. I can't really see their face, but Zelda tenses up and sucks in her breath.

Another figure, a taller one, reveals itself and the first one steps forward, fading sunlight landing on her face.

Oh. My. Goddess. It's Zelda. She's Zelda!

I frown. Zelda's standing right in front of me. If she's right there, how could thatother one be Zelda?

Whoever she is though, her face breaks into a fiendish grin. No – no. That's not Zelda. I don't know what, but there's something different about her.

She takes a few steps forward, face never dropping that diabolical grin. "Well, well, well," she says, looking between me and Zelda. "What do we have here?"

"Get away," squeaks Zelda, face hard. Too bad she sounds five times less menacing than her face shows.

"Who is that?" I whisper to Zelda. She glares at the newcomers, ignoring me entirely.

The other steps closer to us and something inside my head clicks. Her hair. Instead of blonde, it's the darkest shade of night. And her eyes are a violent shade of scarlet. Definitely not Zelda.

"I'm warning you. Do not come any closer," declares Zelda, stepping back herself, right into me.

"Please, Zelda, save it. Do you think I'm scared of a girl in a pretty dress? Well, think again. I'm nothing like you." She raises her hand and something glints off the light. A knife.

Time slows as the other girl dives forward straight at Zelda, the latter lets out a strangled cry, and I'm shoving myself forward.

A sharp pain enters my arm, just below the shoulder. I yelp and fall against the wall, breathing hard. Already I can feel my fingers tingling, going numb. ….Maybe that wasn't the brightest idea in the universe.

"Er – Link?" I groan and open my eyes to see I've pinned Zelda against the wall, crushing her under me.

"Sorry," I mutter, not really sorry at all. After all, who just got stabbed? Speaking of which...

I turn to the woman who looks absolutely pissed, holding the knife with my blood smeared over it. "You filthy worm!" she screams psychotically, stomping her foot. "Get out of my way! This does not concern you!"

"It does now," I groan, trying to lift my heavy arm. It falls back to my side.

Psycho Woman gives forth a furious shriek and lunges at us again, but I jump aside, pulling Zelda with me. We fall to the ground in a crumpled heap, my injured arm taking the brunt of the fall, naturally. I blink away the pain and look to Zelda who's on top of me.

"Well, Princess," I begin, "this is the second time I've saved you in five minutes. Would you still like me to leave?"

"Link! Just get me out of here!" she screams.

I pull myself up and then help the princess to her feet. She brushes herself off, wincing as she pats her shoulder.

"You okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, I –" She suddenly cuts off and screams, pushing my head down into her neck. Though I can't see it, I can feel something whiz over my shoulder, right where my head would have been, and hit the wall behind us. An arrow.

I turn to the two maniacs, the second of which has a crossbow held in their hands. He scowls and loads another arrow.

"What are your guys' problems?" I demand, glaring at the pair. "What do you want with us?!"

"Not you, worm," says Not-Zelda. "Just the girl. Hand her over and your life shall be spared. Now!"

Zelda lets out a sob behind me, and then another and another. I hesitate.

"Hand her over," demands the tall guy.

I frown at the duo. "No."

Their faces blanch and they grit their teeth. "Give me the princess," the woman says slowly, "or so help me Nayru, I will – "

"Kill me?" I suggest. "Well, you've already tried that, like, three times."

"Don't you dare mock me, worm," she growls. "You have no idea how I'm going to kill you if you speak to me like that."

"I think now's a good time to leave," Zelda says while the other girl rattles off the list of horrific ways she's going to kill me. I nod.

"Good idea." I look behind the two others at the open door and whisper, "Follow me."

I look reach out and grab a vase off the desk, throwing it at the girl. It hits her in the chest and she falls backwards against her partner with a squeal and both go toppling over.

"Hurry!" I shout, grabbing Zelda's hand and yanking her along with me out the door.

"Where are we going?" shouts Zelda over my shoulder.

"I don't know. I was kinda hoping you could tell me. This _is_ your castle!" I reply, barging through the door at the end of the hallway onto a flight of stairs.

"Then let me lead," she declares, stepping in front of me.

"Yes your majesty," I say and bow at her.

At the top of the stairwell, a noise echoes out and footsteps pound down above us. "C'mon!" Zelda calls, already ten steps further than me. I peel my eyes from the pounding and follow, wishing I had just refused to take the package. I mean, it's not like this day could have gotten more weird or confusing and then BAM –– I'm being chased through the castle by two psycho killers, trailing behind a beautiful princess who – just a few short minutes ago – was going to shove me out a window.

Talk about insanity.

My vision clouds.

_What insanity. Not only in the land of the living does Ganondorf want to kill me. Now that he's dead he still can't give it up._

_I guess it's only natural to want to kill the one who caused your downfall._

_Ahead of me, Zelda calls that she's found a way out of the smoke-filled room. I catch up to her and she's standing in front of a barred door, hands on her hips._

_"This isn't exactly preferable, is it?" I state, looking at the bars._

_"No," she agrees and lifts her arms to the sky. Golden light spills from the ceiling and envelopes the bars and suddenly they've vanished. She smiles at me. "Good thing I can do that."_

_I gape at her, jaw wide. "H-how'd you..? How'd you do that?"_

_She opens her mouth to answer but at that exact moment something cracks overhead and chunks of rubble fall from above. Without thinking, I push Zelda out of the way and prepare myself for impact. The rubble pelts my skin like hot arrows, pulling blood from beneath the surface. I land hard on my back, my breath leaving my lungs as soon as I hit._

_"Link!" Zelda gasps and kneels over me. "Link, goddess-save-me!"_

_I moan and look up at her beautiful face, framed in golden light. I'm seeing double but that's okay because at least it's her._

_"Link, please get up!" She brushes hair from my forehead, attempting to push the heaviest rocks from my body. "Come on Link, you're okay. You're okay!"_

_She sounds like she's trying to convince herself more than she's trying to convince me. The thought makes my blood broil. Ganondorf tried to ruin us when he was alive, I'd rather go to hell than let him do it to us when he's dead._

_With an exclamatory grunt, I pull myself from the rubble..._

I come back to reality with a crash. Literally. I fall to my knees and tumble down a few steps, panting at the floor. W-What was that? Did I just... fall asleep and dream that? Did I imagine that? Or... was it some whacked, crazy, hysterical memory?

"What are you doing?" hisses Zelda, helping me to my feet. "You can't just lounge around!"

I open my mouth to say something but she yanks me with down a couple more steps, effectively cutting me off.

We finally manage to get to the bottom of the stairs, (me tripping down most of the way) only to be blocked by a locked door. Zelda yanks on the knob but it won't budge. Overhead, the footsteps get more urgent.

"Just use your powers," I blurt while she yanks on the knob again. She turns to me, a horrific look on her face.

"W-what are you talking about?"

I look at her. Man, am I getting one killer of a headache right now...

"I said use your powers. Just lift the door open or something."

She continues to look at me with that look on her face, like I've done something incredibly wrong until I say, "Well, hurry Princess. I don't think we have much time left."

She faces the door slowly, still looking at me out of the corner of her eyes and tries to open the door again. This time it swings open, almost knocking the princess to the ground.

A guard rushes into the stairwell, jaw dropped in horror. His eyes skim over me, bloody, wet and torn up, and the frazzled princess who's trying to get herself to her feet. Not exactly the best seen for a guard to stumble in to...

He draws his sword. "You! You are under civil arrest! Back away from the Princess this instant, or I will –– " He stops abruptly as an arrow lodges in his head.

I gasp and look up the stairs to see the Tall-Psycho narrow his eyes, preparing to shoot another arrow. Short-Psycho frowns and slams her hand into her partner, shouting obscenities and cursing his poor aim.

I feel Zelda take hold of my arm and pull me through the door and down the hall. I let her. Getting as far away as possible from those two psycho's is very smart.

At the end of the hallway, Zelda stops short and checks both directions. I look over her shoulder.

"Clear?" I whisper, not sure why I'm doing so though.

"Yes, I think so," she whispers back. "Stay behind me and stay quiet and –– "

I cut her off, shoving her into the wall, trying to cover her. She utters out some type of protest but her face is wedged into my shoulder, I don't hear her. A figure comes barreling around the corner at top-speed and at first I sigh in relief that they haven't spotted us when they halt suddenly and turn around. Their eyes immediately fall on me and I stand taller, trying to hide the princess even more.

"L-Link, you had better... let me... go right n-now!" Zelda shouts, kneading the heel of her hands into my back. Not to mention totally blowing cover.

The person's face flashes in recognition and I find that in two seconds flat, I've been peeled from the princess and tossed to the floor.

"Okay... ow!" I exclaim hitting the ground hard. I blink back sparkly fairies fluttering around my head and stare up at the princess and the other. They're hugging.

"My gods, Zelda," the person – who I notice must be a Sheikah what with all that purple they're wearing – sighs. "I thought for sure you'd have gotten hurt."

"It's okay, Impa," Zelda says, pulling away. "I'm fine."

Impa's eyes narrow and she flashes me a glare. "What're you doing here?" She turns to Zelda sharply. "What's _he_ doing here?" Zelda scratches the back of her head.

"He was... delivering me a package," the princess replies, holding up the package she must have been holding this whole time. I stand up.

"Um, excuse me, but I just saved the princess's life here – twice. And what thanks do I get? I get thrown to the ground, that's what," I stew, crossing my arms jejunely. "I think someone owes me an apology."

"Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. I did not realize I had shoved over Mr. Self-Important. Please, excuse me," Impa says sourly.

"Impa," Zelda says before I have time to reply to that. Probably better anyway – it wasn't exactly all audiences approved. "Listen, they're here. Right now. They're following us."

Impa's eyes widen. "It's them... isn't it?"

Zelda nods sternly. "Yes, I believe so."

"Are you sure?" Impa asks.

"Positive," Zelda answers quickly. "They've come."

Impa's face turns into that of distress. "Farore, they've already broken the seal. They've probably already permeated the whole crack. Goddess, this is bad."

Is it just me, or am I missing some very important piece of information?

"Who's 'they?'" I question. Both women turn to me.

"And you're here too, huh," Impa snorts, evading my question. "Great. Just who we need." She looks at Zelda. "You happy now?"

"I... No. Just... We should..." Zelda stutters. I can't help but notice that she's blushing. Now, why would that be? "We should get out of here."

"Agreed." Impa pulls a saber from her side. "You two, stick behind me at all times."

Feeling so disoriented and confused, I follow behind the princess who follows behind the Sheikah, all while I wonder if I'm dreaming. Did I pass out on Epona on my way over here? Is this for real? If it is, it's hard to believe.

Up ahead, shouts start to echo over the walls, traveling towards us and filling the air around us. And not just any shouts; they're cries. Cries of battle.

We slow to a halt at a balcony, overlooking the main hall of the castle. Down below, guards raise swords, axes, spears, bows and more, striking at their opponents, that, I can't help but realize, aren't exactly humans...

"Moblins," Zelda breaths, voicing my very thought. She chokes. "W-what the Hylia are Moblins doing in my castle?"

"Probably sent to break through security," Impa says enigmatically. I still don't understand what's going on. Just that I broke into the castle, almost got pushed to my death, got stabbed and beaten by weirdos, chased through the castle I broke in to, and to top it all off, I haven't eaten all day and I am starving.

"I'm sorry, Zelda," Impa says suddenly. "You're going to have to go on without me. I need to round up the Sages right now. I'm so sorry."

"Wait, you're leaving me?" Zelda cries incredulously. The elder lies a hand on the princess's shoulder.

"You know what to do. We'll rendezvous at the haven. I'll meet you there." Zelda bites her lips but nods anyway.

Impa turns to me next, surprisingly. She presses something into my hand that I acutely recognize as some sort of grappling hook. I stare at it.

"Um...?"

"Trust me. Take care of the princess, Link, or so help me I'll wring your neck," she says before chucking a few deku nuts to the ground and disappearing into the flash. The dust settles and I stare at where she last stood.

She knew my name. Goddess dammit, she knew my name. I didn't tell her but she knew anyway! Just like Zelda did. Dammit, that's almost scary.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Zelda interrupts my wacked train of thought. "Are you going to use that thing or not?!"

"Geez, Miss Bossy Pants. Don't get your skirt in a knot, now." I turn the grappling hook over in my hands and suck at one of my teeth. How the heck am I supposed to use this?

I rub my eyes and look upwards, praying to the heavens for advice and my eyes land on a window up above. Something clicks. Aha! So I guess my prayers were heard!

I hold the grappling hook by the handle, a finger on the trigger. "You're gunna wanna hold on to me, princess," I say. "Unless you want to stay here."

She immediately wraps her hands around my neck. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"No," I answer honestly. "Not an idea in the Dark World."

"Huh, well, I guess I can just say good bye to everyone and everything I... ahhhhhh!" Her words turn into a scream as I release the trigger and the hook flies through the glass above, lodging into the stone, and pulls us with it.

We land hard, me none other than at the bottom of the pile. I push the princess from me hurriedly, sick of always being landed on. She huffs and fixes her dress that's fallen off her shoulder.

"Well, I guess it's pretty obvious you didn't know how to use that thing."

"Hey, I just saved your life. Again. If you have a problem with how I do it, then fine. Do it yourself."

She looks like she might reply but down below, a couple Moblins are looking upwards, pointing at us. It's not long before they start to follow us...

And I don't want to be here when they do...

"Come on," I say, hoisting Zelda to her feet roughly. "It's time to go."

We start off at a jog across the rooftops, me leading her this time. She seems confused at first but then scowls. "I suppose you would know the way, seeing as though you broke in through here. You know, that's a federal offense. I could have you arrested."

"Ha," I flout dismissively. "That's a great token of gratitude to give someone who's saved your life."

She opens her mouth to respond but something in the distance catches her eye. I look too, and notice a hazy orange color light up the sky in the distance. That's funny. Sunrise isn't for another six hours...

Zelda inhales prior to my actually realizing what that is. Not sunrise at all. No, that's fire. And lots of it.

We rush to the edge of the roof, looking down below. We've a perfect view of Castletown, up high and everything, only the view itself is anything but perfect.

Houses, buildings, trees, all on fire. More Moblins run through the streets, cutting down any unfortunate victim that was wandering the streets at the wrong time of night. Guards are running around frantically, not knowing what to do or how to handle something like this, ultimately getting cut down like the others. My chest constricts painfully. In the corner of town square, there's a delivery shoppe, and inside, there's a man and his son, totally oblivious to the Moblins and the fire, who very well might die if I don't get there and get them out.

"Link, we can't help them," Zelda says. I start. I totally forgot she was there. I'm too focused on Auru and even Terrel, who are in trouble.

"I'm sorry, but we have to get out of here."

I glare at her. "No way. You get out of here if you want. But there's people down there who need me."

"Link," she says, authority coating her voice. "You're going to come with me right now. There is nothing we can do to help any of them."

I lour at her. "Oh yeah? Says who?"

"Says me," she states. "Listen, if you go down there, you're only going to get yourself killed. For sure. The guards are getting out whoever they can and will round them up and send them somewhere safe, I promise. But you, you are not going to get yourself killed tonight, got it?" Her blue eyes pierce mine intently and I huff out something of a defense – I would NOT die – before I start to realize what she says is true. If I try to run down there, I'll probably get... injured gravely. I know what Auru would say; he'd tell me to save myself and not risk myself getting hurt for him. Besides, Auru's a big, beefy guy. I'm sure, at least I hope, he can make it out of there alive.

"Do you understand?" Zelda asks.

I nod slowly. "Yeah, I do." I slump. "If I can't go home, then where are we going?"

"Lon Lon Ranch," she answers immediately. "That's where me and Impa decided to meet if this... ever happened..."

"Excuse me?" I say, looking at her. "If something like this ever happened? What, you figured this would happen or something? You just thought 'Oh, I think some crazies are going to attack me one day!'" I shake my head at her. "You're nuts."

"Am not! ...I just meant in case someone tries to... er... assassinate me or something." She pauses awkwardly, avoiding my gaze. That's weird. She sounds just like Sheik when he feeds me bull crap like that.

"So, Lon Lon Ranch it is then. Good. It looks like I'll be going to Malon's today anyway. Too bad I'm hours late."

* * *

You know that feeling where you have a huge test you need to study for in school but you forget? Then, you wake up in the middle of the night, the night before the test and you realize you're going to fail devastatingly? That feeling of pure and total dread that builds in your stomach the more you think about it and know there's nothing you can do about it?

Yeah. That's how I feel right now. Only, times ten.

I'm currently running through the backstreets of Castletown, towards the northern exit, getting further and further away from Auru who's back in town square where who knows what is happening.

But it's not like that matters. No, not at all. According to Zelda, everything's going to be fine. Auru and Terrel won't be hurt by the Moblins. Sure the pig-headed beasts will kill random people who they just happen to run in to but no, they won't kill a guy who is for sure going to stand up to them and try to fight back.

Nah, I'm sure they'll be all fine.

Who the hell am I kidding? Of course Auru's going to get hurt! Not like I could help anyway. Because, also according to Zelda, I would get myself killed in that scenario. She's just full of all-knowing knowledge, isn't she?

"I'm sorry we had to leave them behind," Zelda pants while we run. "I really am."

"Oh, it's okay. They're just family. Not all that important."

"I'm serious," she spits. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"It didn't," I say flatly. "You _could've_ let me go."

"That wasn't exactly an option. The Moblins would have killed you!"

"Oh, you made that quite clear, thanks," I say, turning a corner. Zelda stops running and stands still.

"You are still as mule-headed as ever, aren't you? Can't you just not be sarcastic for once?"

"You've never met me. How would you know I'm mule-headed? Which I'm not, by the way..." I add.

Zelda coughs. "I meant you're as mule-headed as you probably would be. If you're like this all the time, I'm sorry for those who raised you."

"Yeah well..." I walk down the alley. "You shouldn't be. It's not like it matters now anyway seeing as though I won't be seeing them ever again. Thank you for that privilege, Zelda."

"Oh, you're welcome."

I freeze.

That wasn't Zelda's voice.

I turn around to see none other than Not-Zelda holding Actual-Zelda in a head-lock, the dagger pressed to her neck. Tall-Psycho stands nearby, looking on.

"Hey!" I shout in anguish. "You let her go!"

Not-Zelda laughs. "How funny you think that I'd actually listen to you."

"I mean it," I warn, my fists bunching together, looking between the two psychos. "Let her go now."

"You sound so threatening right now, I'm scared out of my skin," sneers Not-Zelda. Her red eyes gleam. "In fact, I'm so scared I forgot to be."

Zelda whimpers, looking at me with pleading eyes. "Help me," she mouths, choking due to the arm taut around her neck. My stomach flops.

"Please. Just let her go!" I say, my voice cracking weakly. "Or I'll... or I'll..." Or I'll what? What can I do to them? I have no weapons. Nothing but a stinking ol' grappling hook...

Without thinking, I aim the hook at the girls face and release the trigger. It hits its mark and she instantly releases her hold on Zelda. Tall-Psycho aims his cross bow but before he lets loose his arrow, I shoot the hook into his hand, causing him to drop the bow.

"Run!" I scream, lacing my fingers with Zelda's yanking her with me down the street. Together, we pell-mell it through abandoned alleyways and streets, with no real destination, just trying to lose the two murderous homicidal freaks. I know that even thought the grappling hook threw them off for a second, they have a knife and a crossbow. With that, my grappling hook very well may be string with a paperclip tied to it.

"Link, take me to the Temple of Time!" shouts Zelda as an arrow flies by her head. "We'll be safe there!"

"The Temple of Time?" I echo. "But that's... no one ever goes there anymore. How will we be safe there?"

"Just trust me. It's our best bet." She yelps as another arrow skims her shoulder, drawing blood.

Well, The Temple of Time's back in town square, the place we were trying to avoid but for some reason, I feel like that's the place I have to go. For some reason, I think Zelda's right; we'll be safe there.

_The Temple of Time. So this is it. This is where Zelda wanted me to go. I blink up at the building through the rain battering down at my face. This must hold the answer to the Sacred Stones and the Ocarina Zelda just threw to me._

_Maybe this will help get her back._

_I walk up the first few steps, trying not to be intimidated by the building's menacing size. After all, a little ten year old boy who was raised in the Kokiri Forest isn't exactly tall._

_I heave the large doors open and instantly feel so much more safe. The rain, the fires, the screams... it all disappears as soon as I step onto the tiled floor of the Temple._

_Loud, droning music fills my ears, a sad and reminiscent tune, but even that can't make me feel bad. This place just radiates _safe_._

_Up ahead, I spot the stone pedestal Zelda told me about and approach it, reading the inscription:_ He who has all three spiritual stones and the Ocarina of Time shall gain access to the sacred blade._  
_

_That could only mean one thing._

_I pull the three Spiritual Stones from my tunic and place them gently on the pedestal. They rise in the air and start to spin slowly, hovering up and down. I nod and pull the Ocarina of Time from my tunic as well and begin to play the Song of Time..._

_I sure hope this works._

I'm on the ground, curled up in the fetal position, mumbling "No, no, no," over and over, while the rest of my is trembling. I can hardly feel Zelda, who I think is stroking my arm, telling me something comforting.

I can't believe it. It happened again. Another creepy... vision, if that's what it is. I have no idea what they are, and I have no idea why I'm on the ground, and I have no idea what's going on and my arms hurts super badly now, I can hardly feel it, and maybe Auru's dead and maybe so is Terrel and there's two weirdos chasing us, and they want to kidnap this crazy princess and I'm getting shot at and I don't feel good. At. All.

What's going on?!

"Link, it's okay, it's okay. Shhh, come on now, Link. You're okay."

I blink as Zelda's voice starts to come into tune, staring up into her face. "Come on now, Link. You're okay, you're okay. It's over."

I push myself to my feet and help Zelda get to hers. I rub my head – I must have hit it when I fell to the ground.

"W-what... happened?" I manage.

"You collapsed. You just suddenly fell down. You started screaming something awful. At first, I thought you were shot but you weren't." Zelda's eyes soften. "I thought you were dead."

"I wish I were," I mutter. "I feel like the Grim Reaper's going to come pick me up any minute now."

"Link... what happened when you fell down?" she asks gently. I gaze at her.

"I... I had some weird vision. I think... I had three stones... I was putting them somewhere in the Temple of Time. And I had an instrument. An Ocarina. I called it the Ocarina of Time..." I close my eyes and take deep breaths. "But it probably doesn't mean anything."

Zelda's eyes turn from gentle to conflicted in half a second. She pales dramatically, and her pupils shrink down in size, to the point where she looks like she saw a Poe soul.

"Are you... okay?" I ask.

At first she doesn't answer so I snap my fingers in her face. She snaps back and looks at me. "Link... Have you had this vision before?"

"No, I haven't. But I had another one earlier. I – " My voice catches in my throat as I feel something sharp enter my back, where my naval would be had it been my front side. I cough, vaguely aware that it's blood that comes spurting out.

I twist around, looking over my shoulder to see a bolt lodged in my back, my blood seeping through my tunic. I look upwards and see Tall-Psycho smirk, overjoyed he finally shot a true arrow.

As for me, I'm not doing so well. I'm starting to feel dizzy and if it weren't for Zelda, who's shoulder I lean on with all my weight, I'd probably be on the ground, on my way to certain death.

As it is, somehow the princess and I are still running (well, limping really) through town, closer and closer to the flames that dance and lick at the dark sky.

After ten billion centuries we finally make it back to towns square, weaving towards the Temple of Time positioned out of sight by the bunch of other buildings.

Though I know I shouldn't, I steal a quick glance at the delivery shop to see it looks pretty much unharmed and the lights are all off inside. Perhaps they got out...

With all the difficulty in the world, we manage our way up the front steps of the Temple and I lean against the big wooden doors, pushing them open with my dead weight.

Just like in my vision, as soon as I cross the threshold, I feel protected and safe, more than I've ever felt in my life. Maybe it's just because when I die, which won't be too long from now, I'll die in a sacred place and perhaps I'll be cleansed of my wrong-doings in life and I'll get to live out forever and eternity with the three Goddesses above. Yes, that sounds lovely.

"Link! Come over here! Please!"

Well, I'm not dead yet.

I hobble over to Zelda who stands in front of the pedestal, looking down at the Hylian symbol of time. She takes the package she somehow kept this whole time and tears it open hurriedly, pulling out the contents.

And you will not believe this, but they're rocks.

Frickity-fracking rocks.

I busted my ass for _rocks_.

I swam in a moat for _rocks_.

God.

But when Zelda puts them onto the pedestal, I suddenly realize they aren't just rocks. They're the stones... uh, what did I call them...? Spiritual Stones, that's what. The sacred Stones from my vision. One green, one red and one blue. They shimmer brilliantly.

Zelda then pulls a blue item out of mid-air. I gape at her. What the? How...?

She shows the thing to me. It's that Ocarina, the one from my vision. The Ocarina of Time.

She hands it to me.

"Play the Song of Time, Link. Play it and the door shall open for you," she says.

I examine the Ocarina. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"God, Link, you must remember something! The Song of Time! Please! The door will only open for you, the Hero of Time!"

"Hero of Time?" I repeat, like the words are foreign on my tongue. "Um... I think you have me mixed up with someone else."

"Look, I'll explain later but just try to remember. The Song of Time. _Try to remember_!"

Behind us, the doors bang open and, surprise surprise, in comes Psycho 1 and Psycho 2.

"Liiink! Try and remember! And _huuurrrry_!" Zelda reiterates urgently.

I try to push aside the blinding pain in my back and arm and press the mouthpiece to my lips. I breath out a few notes but then wince. That sounded like crap! That's obviously not the Song of Time... Crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap...

Not-Zelda runs at us but Zelda picks up the grappling hook and fires it, only to narrowly miss the girl. I turn my focus back to the Ocarina.

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to block out all the other noise. _Song of Time, Song of Time...Come on, please work..._

Suddenly, notes rupture from the Ocarina, sounding chilly and haunting, just like the ones playing around me right now. Yes, the Song of Time.

Once I'm done, I try not to think about how freaking scary it is that I suddenly knew how to play a song I've never heard, and focus on the stone block in front of me that's slowly vanishing.

"Great job Link! You did it!" Zelda cheers happily. I wish I could share her amusement. Sadly, I can't.

Because I'm being thrown to the ground by Not-Zelda.

I land on my back, the arrow that was still there snaps in half, sinking deeper into my skin. I scream in pain, writhing on the ground in agony. That did _not_ feel good.

Not-Zelda appears over me, a frown on her face. "You know," she begins, "you are really starting to upset me. You're like a cat. Every time I try to kill you, you just bounce right back. But, rest assured, this is your last life." Her knife appears in hand and she stoops over, about to press it to my throat when something grabs her and pushes her off of me.

I turn my head weakly to see Zelda's tackled her look-alike killer and is wrestling with her as they both flail about on the ground. That could actually be funny, two girls in dresses, scratching each-others faces and ripping at each others hair, if I wasn't in so much pain.

I watch as Not-Zelda takes out her knife and slices it across Zelda's arm and the latter falls to her side, wailing in pain. The sight fuels me with extra-adrenaline and I get to my feet, balancing all my weight on one foot, since the other I think might be twisted.

My grappling-hook is across the room. I have nothing but Saria's ocarina in my pouch. I have no weapons to fight these two with but... I just opened that block and it must lead to somewhere.

I stumble towards it and enter the room on the other side. It's bigger than the first room, filled with tall windows high above, and an octagon platform stands in the middle of it. And on that platform, a pedestal...

_The Master Sword..._

The word comes out of nowhere, probably where the Song of Time came from too, and something inside me jumps up and down uncontrollably. I remember... that sword. I've seen it somewhere before. I've held it too. I've fought with it and I've won battles with it...

But how?

I hobble up to it, just as Zelda enters behind me. She rushes to my side and looks at me. "Pick it up."

I reach a hand out, tentative at first, like it'll zap me if I touch it but then lay my hand on it. A surge of energy runs through me, coursing through my veins like electricity. I knew I knew this sword. It feels so familiar. This the handle was made just for me...

I lift the sword from its pedestal and hold it in hand. I drop to my knees as blue, liquidy light surrounds me and Zelda and the platform. Two two psychos spot us and run at us, but are thrown backwards by the blue light. They throw themselves against it, pound at it, but they can't get in. They're stuck out there.

A warm feeling enters my body and I smile at Zelda briefly before I fall to the floor, face smashing into the tiles. I feel someone's hands at my back, patting me, but I'm too numb.

The last thing I see before I black out are the two others throwing themselves at us futilely.


	4. Chapter 4

Well guys, thank you for your continued support; I really appreciate it! Here's the new chapter so I hope you guys enjoy it! Like and review, and I'll be _uber_ happy. Like, siriously review. Enjoy! :3

* * *

"He's going to die if we don't get there fast enough. That arrow shattered his spleen."

"Can't this thing go any faster?! Hurry up, up there!"

Voices... I'm hearing voices... Or at least I think I am.

Where am I? I feel like I'm in a river, swaying back and forth. It's making me sick... And I think I hear rain. Or something hitting against wood. And the clopping of horse's feet. What's going on?

"I can't go any faster than this! We'll get there when we get there!"

"Well, don't hold me responsible if the boy dies. When your sorry excuse of a butt is working as a slave, don't expect me to help you."

...Arrow? ...Boy?

Are they talking about me?

I groan and try to roll over to take in my bearing, but find I can't. My body won't move.

"Oh, hey, hey, I think he's waking up."

"Shouldn't be. He'll just try to get up and run back to save them. In which case he'll be dead for sure."

That voice... That voice sounds so familiar. Telling me I'm going to die... That sounds like...

I blink open my eyes and squint against a burning light searing my eyes. Above me, a dark blur lowers itself next to me, to where I can see their face.

Sheik.

I open my mouth to say something but he pulls a harp from his side and plucks a few strings. As soon as the soft music floats through the air, I feel my eyelids shut again. He continues playing, lulling me deeper into sleep. But I don't... want to... sleep... anymore.

"Rest, Link. You'll be okay. Just rest."

I black out once again.

Sweet merciful Din, I think I'm dying.

I'm laying on my stomach, naked from the waist up, and there's something digging painfully into my back. I'm barely hanging onto consciousness as it is, if the pain doesn't knock me out first.

"We're going to have to get that whole arrow head out. It'll get infected if we don't."

"It's too deep in there. I can't reach it."

I can't see who's talking, but I can tell one's a girl and the other is a boy. They don't sound too happy about whatever they're doing. And they sure don't sound confident either.

"Are you sure? We can't leave it in there."

"Wait... no, I think I've got a hold on it." Something touches my back lightly and then Holy sweet baby Nayru, a burning feeling of acid gets ripped from my flesh.

My lips let loose a horrid scream and I blink back tears of pain. What the hell was that?!

"Oh gods, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt him!"

"Too late for that. He'll pull through."

You know, whoever is talking, I'd like to punch in the face. Pull through? It feel like I just got a barbed wire laced in poison pulled through me! And he says I'm going to "pull though?" Someone has obviously never been shot with an arrow in their life.

I try to push myself up onto my elbows but my left arms suddenly collapses, slamming my chin on the table. I blink back stars and moan.

"Told you he'd try to get up," says the female voice accusingly. "Now he's going to hurt himself again."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think he'd be strong enough yet..." says the other.

I pinch my eyes shut and try to tune out their voices. I just want this pain to stop. It hurts. I hurt.

Nausea sweeps over me and I'm out again.

I wake to a twinging pain in my arm. I blink my eyes open and look around, searching for the source.

Sheik sits next to me on a stool, eyes darting back and forth as he wraps my arm in a white bandage. Each time he touches it, pain shoots through the entire limb. I gasp and wince in pain. He looks up at me.

"Ah, I see you're awake," he says, still busy with my arm. "How do you feel?"

"Tired," I respond, my voice sounding like sandpaper. My throat feels coated with the stuff. "Where am I?"

"Lon Lon Ranch," he responds. "Don't worry, you're okay now."

"What's wrong with me?" I ask, barely audible. "Am I okay?"

"You're fine," he answers. "You have an arrow wound in your back that cut through your spleen pretty good. Don't worry we got the arrow head out." I grimace remembering that little event of pure pain. "You lost a lot of blood from it but I think you're okay now. And then the stab wound in your arm – it wasn't that deep but then again, you still lost a significant amount of blood." He goes back to wrapping my arm.

Well, that explains a lot. No wonder I passed out back at the Temple of Time. The events of that night come flooding back to me in a painful wave of nausea. Delivering that package, getting chased by those two psychos, meeting Zelda...

Zelda!

I sit up and look wildly at Sheik even though my back screams at me not to. "Sheik! Where's the princess? Did she make it out? Is she here? Is she okay?" My eyes dart back and forth across the room apprehensively.

"Dude, calm down. You're going to reopen your wound I just got done stitching up!" Sheik hisses, trying to push me back down onto me pillow. I resist.

"Sheik, tell me," I say, looking up into his red eyes. "Tell me if she's alright." He sighs and lets go of me. I fall back onto my pillow.

"The princess is fine," he says gruffly. "She's here too, recovering from her wounds just like you should be. Now, sit still so I can finish wrapping this."

I sigh in relief. For some reason even though I don't feel good, like _at all_, if Zelda's okay, then my wounds don't matter. As long as she's safe, I can bleed out all I want, and I wouldn't care.

I don't know why I feel that way, but I do.

"You should rest some more," Sheik speaks up when he's finally done wrapping my arm. He lays it in bed next to me. "You still need to rest for now."

"But Sheik," I say, awfully close to a whine. "I'm not tired!" Even as I say so, my eyelids start to droop. "I don't want to sleep... I want to know what's going on right now."

Sheik pats my forehead and pulls out his harp. "Just rest, and I'll explain everything later, I promise."

Notes drift from his harp and swoop around the room gently, lulling me into a deep, dreamless sleep.

My mouth tastes bad. It tastes like sour milk. It's probably because I've been laying here all day just staring off into space, trying to make sense of everything.

First, there was the package. Then there was Zelda, and then the those two psycho's, I really have nothing else to call them, and then there were Moblins. Then the loss of Auru and Terrel. Next, I was stabbed and shot and then Castletown was run through by the Moblins. I keep having crazy visions, I somehow knew the Time Song or whatever it was called, and then I pulled the Master Sword from its pedestal.

Yeah, I really have no hope in making sense of everything.

With that thought fresh in mind, I haul myself out of bed and stand up, trying hard not to wobble. Thankfully, I feel fine.

I yawn and stretch, every joint in my stiff body cracking simultaneously. I don't know how long I've slept since Sheik last came to see me but the sun is dipping low into the sky outside the window. Malon came in earlier and mentioned something about dinner, and I am starving.

She also mentioned that there's people here to see me. I got my hopes up in thinking that maybe it was Auru but she said it wasn't. She didn't tell me who, though.

I walk about Malon's room, looking for my tunic and pull it on over the bandages snaking around my stomach. My backs still a little tender but not nearly as bad as before.

I find my boots and gloves and pull those on too, along with my hat. I give myself a once-over in the full body mirror and wince. Well, at least when people look at me they'll know I feel like hell if I look like it.

I open the door and step into the hall, only to be assaulted by something bright, blue and twinkly.

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!" the little thing squeals in a high-pitched philharmonic voice. Whatever it is, it attaches itself to my nose and clings there for dear life.

"What the...?" I mutter, trying to pry the thing off. I pluck it from my nose and hold it in front of me.

"Hey! Let go of me!" the thing screams, kicking her feet. My eyes widen as I realize she's a fairy, complete with wings and everything, which is what I'm holding her by actually. She throws a few punches at my face, but doesn't even come close to hitting her mark. "Let me go!" I release hold of the tiny fairy and stare at her in bewilderment.

"Who're you?" I rub my nose where she was clinging on a few seconds ago. Her jaw drops open.

"You don't remember me?!" she cries incredulously.

"Should I?" I ask innocently. She gasps and throws her hands to her mouth.

"I can't believe you Link! I cannot believe it at all! After all we have been through, you just forget about me! How dare you!" Her lips quiver, threatening tears.

"Uh... I'm sorry, but I just don't remember you," I say. "I don't think I've ever even met you." The fairy holds her dainty fingers to the bridge of her nose and sniffs pitifully.

"I told her it was a bad idea to do this," she mutters in a tiny voice. So tiny, I almost don't hear.

"Who's 'her?' Did she do something to you?" I ask. The fairy looks at me with sad eyes that shift color every few seconds. Whoa, creepy.

"Not to me, you idiot! What she did to you!" She sniffs again and dips her face into her hands. "And now you don't even remember me!"

Okay, I don't know what the hell this fairy is talking about but... I sort of feel bad. She looks really sad.

"Um... how about we start with names?" I suggest, shrugging. "What's yours?"

"My name's Navi," she says, picking her head up and crossing her arms. "Does that not even ring a bell?" I shake my head.

"Sorry, not really," I admit. "But my name's Link."

"I know who you are!" she quips. "Because I'm your fairy partner!"

I stare at her like she's crazy. And she is! Fairy partner? I don't have a fairy partner. And Mido made sure I'll always remember that.

"I don't know if you understand this, Navi, but only Kokiri get guardian fairies. And seeing as though I'm over five feet, you can't possibly be my 'fairy partner.' But nice try, really."

"Yes, I am! I'm your guardian fairy given to you by the Great Deku Tree," she rattles. "You couldn't last a day without me!"

"Well, newsflash, I've lived seventeen years without you. So I think I'm doing just fine," I spit, starting to get irritated. Why's she so intent on getting to believe she's my fairy?

"Ha, that's real rich coming from a guy who just got shot and stabbed and came this close to dying." She huffs out her breath, fixing her array of sparkly, blue hair. "You're still really thick, aren't you?"

"Hey! I am not!" I say defensively.

"Are too!" she responds haughtily.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Ahem... sorry if I'm interrupting something here..." Both me and Navi turn to the voice. It's Sheik. "Are you guys okay?"

"Oh, Sheik!" Navi exclaims and rushes to the warrior. "It's horrible! He doesn't know who I am!"

"I told you he wouldn't. Not for awhile at least," Sheik responds. "I'm sorry."

Navi's shoulders fall and she turns to me, fluttering right up in my face. I look at her with daze. I wonder if I can somehow get rid of this crazy little chick. There's an open window over there... I could flick her away... Or lock her in my room... I grin internally.

"Listen, mister, whether you remember or not, I _am_ your fairy partner!" she announces. "And I can prove it!" Her mouth turns up into a triumphant grin. "Right now you're contemplating ways on how to get rid of me. Throw me out a window, flick me away and lock me in your room." I stare at her in shock. "Don't deny that you are."

W-what the...? How the... How did she know...?

"Also, you have a HUGE crush on Malon and you won't tell anyone," she continues jubilantly. "And you're also starving, tired, and slightly humiliated. Shall I continue?" I shake my head vehemently, ignoring that fact Sheik's trying hard not to laugh at me (and failing miserably).

"How did you... how did you...?" I'm at a loss for words.

"How do you _think_?" she says. "Take three guesses, Link."

The only way she could have known any of that... could have possibly known my personal thoughts like that is if...

My vision clouds.

_"Link...! Link, wake up! Come on! Okay, seriously get out of bed!"_

_I groan and roll over, sleep still tugging at the back of my mind. Is someone trying to talk to me?_

_"Finally! Come on Link, get your lazy butt out of bed! You've been summoned by the Great Deku Tree."_

_I look around my dark room for the voice and my eyes land on a sparkling blue ball hovering hyperactively over my head. I shout in surprise and bolt from bed, landing hard on my back. I stare up at the glowing blue ball._

_"Aha! See, I knew you could do it," the ball says. I shake my head._

_"W-what the...? Who're you?" I ask, feeling slightly creeped out._

_"My name's Navi," she says, flying down to flutter in front of my eyes. She breaks into a great big smile. "And I'm your fairy partner!"_

_Excitement fills my whole body. "My... what? My fairy partner? For reals?"_

_"Yep!" she confirms with a shake of her head. "Now get up and gets dressed! The Great Deku Tree is waiting."_

_With a exultant squeal I jump up and grab at my new fairy partner. Finally! I finally get a fairy! Take that Mido!_

_Navi flickers out of my grabby hands and twinkles. "Hey, no grabsies! Don't crush me!"_

_I take her in my hands gently and stare down at the small little fairy who grins up at me. She flicks a piece of blue hair from her eyes and says confidently, "Let's get a move on, partner!"_

I fall against the door, staring in disbelief at the fairy. Another vision... Back in the Kokiri forest... And Navi was there and she was... my fairy partner...

Navi grins. "I think you finally understand." She taps my nose with a small hand. "Good for you Link."

I look between her and Sheik and back again, all while not believing it. I have a fairy partner.

"This had better make sense when you start explaining things to me," I grumble.

I fork at my rice dismally, not interested in eating. It's weird, usually it'd take me on my deathbed to refuse a meal.

But wait... I was on my death bed earlier, soooo...

I look upwards and take in my weird assortment of dining companions. They're the ones Malon meant when she said people were here to see me. Somehow, I wasn't expecting these people.

First off, there's this huge Goron guy, Darunia. He seems like a nice guy, often breaking into weird movements that I think might count as dance moves but I'm too busy trying to steady myself from the ground that rumbles beneath him as he "dances" to take notice. He smiles a lot and often calls me 'Little Brother' even if I tell him not to, but other than that, he's a cool guy.

Then there's a Gerudo named Nabooru who is probably only older than me by a couple years, but is none-the-less as smart as a whip. She's got sarcasm down to a fault, to the point she might even be better at it than me. _Might_. She's got these slanty golden eyes that stare me down wherever I go – but I get the feeling she's just waiting for me to do something. But what?

And last, but absolutely, surely, definitely, _certainty_, not least, is a female Zora named Ruto. Apparently, she's Princess of the Zora tribe, and you'd better not forget it. Bossy, vain and aloof – that pretty much sums her up. Annoyingly enough, she's got this habit of constantly ordering around. It's like she owns me, or I'm her slave, or she's my evil wife who can't help but boss me around in every which way possible...

I don't know why any of them are here other than, 'They're here for you, Link' which is what Navi tells me every time I ask. I stopped asking after the first twenty times.

I try not looking at any of them when I can, however. Every time I do, I just get déjà vù all over and even more random visions... Trying to find the key to the door out of the thousands that look exactly the same... Wading through sinking sand... Trying to avoid falling in boiling hot lava...

Malon sits at the table too, right next to me, busy in shoveling food down her mouth. Navi sits next to my plate, eating a small ration of food that probably seems like a feast to her, often commenting on how good Malon's cooking skills are.

Zelda's supposedly coming too but I haven't seen her yet. Fashionably late, as Ruto calls it. Because princess's are _never_ late. And Sheik said he'd be here earlier, but he isn't. So much for that promise.

I put my fork down and look around the yard. There's a bunch of other people here too, but they're just the ones who made it out of Castletown alive. I tore the place apart looking for Auru, but I couldn't find him anywhere. Malon told me a lot of people were taken to the desert to work as slaves for the Moblins, and that he might be there. That was the best news I had heard all day – he might still be alive.

Frolicking through the field, nipping at the other horses is Epona. I was so relieved to see her, happy she made it out when the Moblins attacked. I couldn't bear losing my horse too.

I turn back to the food and try to listen to what everybody else is talking about. Nabooru and Darunia hoot and howl over something funny that happened to them a while back while Ruto eats her food regally, totally oblivious that Darunia's thumping the table so hard, her cup of water spills all around her. I can't help but snicker. Her eyes flit up to me.

"What's so funny Link?" she snips, putting her knife down. "Are you laughing at me?"

"Oh, no, never," I say, copying her upstaged tone of voice. She purses her lips and glares at me.

"Pass the salad, peasant," she orders, holding her hand out. I dramatically dump it into her hands, much to Malon's amusement and Navi's scolding.

"Hey, be nice," she says, flying up and landing on my shoulder. "Stop being so mule-headed."

"You know, Zelda called me that when I first met her too," I say. "Speaking of which, where is she? Oh, wait, fashionably late, right?"

Navi scoffs, ignoring me altogether.

As if on cue, Zelda appears at the back door of the house, looking as royal as one can in a pair of overalls that must belong to Malon.

I try – I mean, I really try – to hold in my guffaws as Miss Farmer Girl approaches the table. Everybody else stands and bows, but I'm too busy trying to control my mirth (and failing royally, I might add) to follow suit.

Malon clears her throat and nudges me, whispering to get up and bow like a polite little boy but by the time I get up, everybody's already sitting again. So much for polite.

"I'm so happy you could all make it," Zelda says, smiling at each of us. "It's good to see all of you well."

"Agreed," Nabooru says, pushing her plate away. "Now that you're here, may we begin?"

"Yeah," I speak up. "Why am I even here? What do you all want with me?"

"Link! Be polite!" Navi hisses in my ear. I flick her away.

"Well, Link, that's what we're here to discuss. You see, there's a lot of things we need to explain to you." She looks around the table. "Where should we begin?"

"How about seventeen years ago?" suggests Darunia in a booming voice. "He deserves to know what's going on from the beginning."

"Very well," Zelda answers, and begins a very long and confusing story.

Apparently, about seventeen years ago, Hyrule went to war with itself. Gorons and Gerudo's on one side and Sheikah and Zora's on the other. Hylians were either not involved or involved entirely.

The war was one of the worst things to happen to Hyrule ever. So many people lost, so many people turned traitor, so much destruction. Brother turning on brother, friend turning on friend... it was horrible.

However, as bad as the war might have been, it was nothing compared to what was going to happen when the war was just barely starting to wind down, and this is where it begins to gets trippy.

According to Zelda and the others, Sages as Zelda calls them, there's another world entirely bound to this one. It's a lot like Hyrule, right down to it's name: Lorule. They have a King just like Hyrule, they have six races just like Hyrule, even locations are the same.

Zelda says that Lorule was always the poorer of the two kingdoms and didn't have a very strong diplomacy. When they heard of Hyrule's civil war, the Lorulians took full advantage of it and raided Hyrule, looting and killing anyone in their way. Nabooru explains that Lorulians are a lot more violent and vicious than Hyrulians and had no trouble killing hundreds upon thousands of innocents.

The king of Hyrule, I'm guessing Zelda's father, needed to do something to stop the Lorulian invasion. So he unified Hyrule temporarily to fight off the Lorulians, because they were a bigger threat than the on-going civil war.

This war was even more savage and brutal than the civil war, but in the end, Hyrule came out on top and drove the Lorulians back to their home kingdom. They sealed up all the entrances from Hyrule to Lorule and commanded that Lorule never attack us again or suffer the consequences.

After that, Hyrule was too damaged to really continue the civil war so it just kind of died off and seventeen years have passed in peace.

That is, until now.

"We think the Lorulians are coming back," Zelda informs me. "In fact, we know they are. Those two chasing us the other night?" She smooths out her overalls. "They're names are Anissa and Ijin. Anissa is the current princess of Lorule, and Ijin's her assistant."

"Wait, she's the Princess of Lorule?" I ask. "Then what's she doing here?"

"She was here to capture Zelda," Darunia explains. "Lorule has held a grudge against Hyrule ever since the day we won the war. They've wanted nothing more than to assassinate the leader of Hyule and take over in her place."

"Well..." I say in shock to the pure violence of these so called Lorulians. "That wouldn't be... good."

"No, it wouldn't," Nabooru agrees. "If Zelda dies, then there's nothing holding Hyrule back from starting it's civil war again. And it's seventeen years ago all over again."

I look around at the people sitting around me. Above us, the sky darkens, gray clouds brewing in the distance. Already I can sense the rain.

"Okay, I agree with all you fine people that starting the war over again would be pretty bad but..." I straighten out. "I don't see what this has to do with me."

"Link, it has everything to do with you because..." Zelda hesitates for a seconds before continuing. "Because you're the – "

"HERO OF TIME!"

The shout comes from behind us and I whirl around only to see around thirty Moblins jump over the fence surrounding Lon Lon Ranch and sprint towards us. Those milling about the yard scream in fear and duck to the ground, pulling their children with them. Chaos erupts as Moblins grab the innocents and throw them aside as if they're searching for someone. Horses run astray, people run screaming, Moblins run throwing people around

The Sages jump from the table and instantly engage the Moblins in battle like they were expecting this and are totally prepared.

I go into hyper-dive as I watch people fall to the ground, limp and bloody and rush to save a few. Zelda, however grabs my hand and yanks me back.

"No!" she screams. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Saving them! What the hell do you think?" I shout back. Navi flutters nervously around our heads.

"Um guys... Don't look now but..." the fairy trails off.

Both Zelda and I turn to the advancing Moblins climbing the fence and spot a black horse jumping over the wall, galloping though the field. Atop that horse, sits Anissa, looking savagely as ever. Great, not this woman again.

Zelda hisses angrily and pulls me back, shoving me to the ground. "Great... No time to run. Just stay down and do not move from this spot, okay?!" she commands, throwing the table cloth over my body. "Don't let her see your face, understand? If you move, so help me I will... I will..." She can't come up with a good enough threat.

"Don't worry," I hiss up at her. "I'll sit here and watch people die like a good little boy." She gives me a haughty angry look before running off herself to where, I can't see.

"What's her problem?" I ask Navi who's settled on the grass under the tablecloth. She shakes her head.

"I don't think she wants you dying," she responds flatly. "And neither do I."

I tear my gaze away from her and peek up at the crowd that has by now settled down quite drastically. Moblins stand about, holding people in their arms like hostages, or to keep them from running. At least they're not being killed.

Anissa strides about on her horse, scanning the crowds intently. I huddle back down into the table cloth deeper.

"Where is he?" I hear her shout over the crying of children and yelling of people in pain. "Where is he?!" I look up to see her draw a deadly looking scimitar from her back. "Show me Link, the Hero of Time, now!"

I freeze, my body solidifying. Link...? That's my name... Why's she calling my name? Or better yet, how does she even know my name and why is she calling me this 'Hero of Time?'

Still, I follow Zelda's orders and stay down.

Anissa hops from her horse and stalks to a nearby lump on the ground. She pulls it up and I see it's an old man, looking terrified as Anissa holds her scimitar to his neck. I tense up.

"If no one is going to tell me where he is, then I guess I'm going to have to kill this man here." She tightens her grip on him. He trembles in fear. "Unless of course, Link, you want to step forward and save him like the hero you are. If not... well..." She grins as she digs the blade into the man's neck. "I know you're here Link. Your choice."

I exhale sharply and stare up at the two, preparing my body to jump up. I know Zelda said to stay down but... That man is going to die if I don't.

"Don't you dare," Navi hisses in my ear. "You heard Zelda. Don't let her see you."

"Oh yeah? Well Zelda's not here is she?" I snap angrily, wishing I had a weapon right about now.

"Don't do it Link. I swear if you do – " Navi is cut off as Anissa drags her blade across the mans throat and he lets out a blood-curdling scream. I squeeze my eyes shut and press my face into the grass.

"Great. Now there's another man dead. And because of me. Thanks Navi," I spit. "She's just going to keep killing people until I step forward."

Navi hesitates like she's going to say something but then realizes I'm right. And I know I'm right.

Anissa picks another figure off the ground and holds this one surety like the other man. Her red hair falls around a face she's trying to keep calm.

Malon.

She has Malon. And she's going to kill her.

"I'll ask again: Link, show yourself and none more shall be wasted. All you have to do is get up and show yourself. It's simple," Anissa calls throughout the yard.

My stomach flip-flops. Malon. Anissa has Malon. Anissa is going to kill Malon.

No. I'm not going to let that happen.

Just as Anissa is going to hastily kill Malon, I throw myself up (even though Navi screams a useless "Stop!") and scream in a thunderous voice, "NO! Let her go!"

Anissa's eyes fixate on me and she grins, dropping Malon from her arms and stepping over her. She walks to me until she's standing only a few feet away. I stand my ground, glowering at her.

"Well, I guess all it takes to get you out is a pretty face, huh, Hero of Time?" She nods over at the man she killed. "Didn't care enough about him?" I grimace.

"I don't know who you want, but I'm not the Hero of Time. I don't even know what that is," I tell her darkly. "So you can stop killing people now."

Anissa's smile vanishes and she lets her scimitar fall to her side. "You don't? But... how could you forget who you are?"

I stare at her, confused. Who I am? What does she mean?

A sudden voice rungs throughout the yard.

"Link! Get out of there! Run!"

I turn to the person and see it's Sheik. He's running through the yard, battling Moblins as he goes. Commotions throughout the yard breaks out again.

"Sheik?" I shout over the crowd. "But... what're you...?" He cuts over me.

"Hurry! Run!" he screams shrilly. "Get away from her!"

I'm just about to do as he says because running from a woman who has the guts to kill me sounds like a superb idea. Before I get to though, Anissa holds her scimitar to my chest.

"Oh, no, no, no," she says, voice filled with detest. "I let you escape last time. That was my foolish mistake. But not this time."

Without wavering, she takes the tip of her blade and rips it up my chest, blood instantly pooling from the wound.

I scream and fall to the ground, writhing in pain. Holy Nayru, that hurts. No, that's a complete understatement. Navi flits around me, screaming in horror, trying to get someone to come help me.

Anissa hovers over me, preparing to strike me down and I brace myself, but there's a flash of white and the former is knocked backwards. I blink through the dark stars taking hold of my vision and see Nabooru has thrown herself forward and engaged Anissa in battle.

"Link, get on a horse and ride from here!" she shouts over her shoulder as their two scimitars clash angrily. "Right now!"

Get on a horse? Is she crazy? I don't even think I can get up!

Still, I scramble backwards on all fours, getting as far away from Anissa and Nabooru as possible. Once I've gained enough distance, I push myself to my feet and glance around the rushing crowd anxiously. I spot Malon on the ground a couple yards away and rush to her.

"Malon, are you okay?" I ask, kneeling down next to her. She's struggling to get up.

"Yeah, I am but... A Moblin stepped on my foot and I think it's broken..."

I grab hold of her hand and try to help her up. "Come on, you're coming with me. I'm not leaving you here."

I help her to her feet but she falls back down again, yelping in pain. Now that I look at it, her foot does look twisted and purple. I don't think she can walk. Still, I'm not leaving her.

"Just try to walk, Malon," I say, close to begging. "Please, I am NOT leaving you here."

She looks up at me sadly and shakes her head. "Just get out of here yourself Link. I'll be okay, I promise."

Navi lands on my shoulder and her wings droop. "I don't know how to help, I'm sorry Link."

I shake my head at her and gaze sadly at Malon. "Just go," she says again. "Please, get yourself out of here."

I stare at her sadly and then bend over her and pull her up to meet my lips and engage her in a kiss. The chaos around us melts into a puddle as we huddle together and I couldn't give a lesser care in the world as to any of the Moblins.

We pull away and I stare into her eyes for a brief second before I feel someone pull me from behind. I'm lifted off the ground and then placed on Epona who gives a whinny as I settle into her saddle. Sheik sits in front of me, the reins in his hands.

Out of nowhere, Darunia comes over to us and scoops Malon into his arms.

"Don't worry, Little Brother!" he booms. "This girl will be safe! I promise you!"

I nod sternly at him as Sheik gives the reins a flick. I keep my eyes on Malon as Epona winds back on her back hooves and then sprints towards the exit of Lon Lon Ranch.

"What about the princess?" I shout over the wind whipping at our faces. "Is she going to be safe?"

"She'll be fine!" Sheik shouts back over his shoulder. "She knows what she's doing!"

I sigh in relief and Navi grips onto the shoulder of my tunic, patting my neck gently.

"I'm sorry about Malon," she says. "I wish we could have helped."

"I know, Navi," I respond, suddenly feeling faint due to the amount of blood I'm losing from my chest. I fall against Sheik's back and close my eyes. "I know."


	5. Chapter 5

After two weeks, I have finally gotten over writers block and came out with this. It's not my _best_ work, but I hope you guys won't be too terribly upset over that... Oh and I would LOVE to thank the following people: Kai2, Quomimi, RaeMeian, amwick, MSG1000, staticblast, thebasementdweller and Juli-sama14 for either following, reviewing, favorting or all three! It means so much to see people are reading this. :')

Oh, and if you have ANY suggestion on how to improve this, PLEASE message or review telling me. I'd love to hear your feedback!

That's pretty much it, R & R, and thank so much! :3

* * *

I wake to lively ocarina music playing, pulling me out of my depth of unconsciousness. That song sounds familiar. It sounds like Saria's Song.

I open my eyes and try to roll over, looking for the person playing but before I do, I notice where I am. The wooden walls, the carvings on the walls made by a crude hand. The extra small bed I'm in confirms it.

I'm back in my house in the Kokiri Village.

I shut my eyes tightly, wishing I was anywhere but here. When I left seven years ago, I told myself I was never going to come back here. Told myself I never wanted anything to do with these little unaging midgets. And now here I am, back in my old bed, staring at my old ceiling, the same old feeling of dread inside of me.

The music cuts off abruptly and with a deep guttural groan I roll over, even though a tight pain in my chest protests, only to be assaulted by something bright and green.

"Link, you're awake!" the person giggles delightedly and suddenly throws their arms around me. I scream in pain and surprise.

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry!" she apologizes, pulling away from me. "I forgot how weak you are!"

"Be careful!" screams another voice. Navi. "Saria, you could seriously hurt him! He's not properly healed yet!" My eyes open and I blink away the pain. Saria? Did I hear Saria?

Sure enough, my first best friend stands above me, wringing her hands nervously. Her green hair falls down into her big blue eyes wrinkled in concern.

"I'm sorry Link," she says again, blushing. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's... fine," I manage to say without too much trouble. "I'm kind of used to that by now..." I wince as another pain ebbs through me. Gods, I feel as though my chest's been spliced right through.

Wait a second...

It has.

"How do you feel?" demands a fluttering Navi who swoops around my face rapidly. "I've been trying to heal you as best as I can but you were cut up pretty bad. It's a lot of trouble for me to heal that bad a wound."

"Calm down," I tell the fairy, pushing myself up with only minimal grunts and gasps. Saria keeps wringing her hands. "I said it's fine, Saria," I tell her assuredly. She looks at me. "I've been through worse. I'll recover." I lean against the headboard of the ridiculously small bed and offer her a smile. "Besides, it's good to see you again."

Her face lights up and she jumps a little.

"Oh Link, you have no idea how much I've missed you these past seven years!" she confesses excitedly. "I've waited for you to come back and visit me like you said you would but you never did..." Her face suddenly grows dark. "You haven't forgotten me, have you?"

A pang of guilt washes over me. She's right, I haven't seen her since I ran from the forest seven years ago. I should have at least come back once to let her know I was alright.

"It's okay," she says before I can say anything. "I understand. You're an adult now Link. You're busy and you have things to do."

"I'm sorry I haven't talked to you in so long. You're still my best friend, though," I add quickly. She smiles playfully at me, like she used to when we were kids. Well, when I was a kid.

"Of course we're still best friends, silly! It's not like that's changed." She taps her temple with a finger. "And it's never going to," she says confidently. I grin at her.

"I hate to break this up and everything," pipes Navi, hovering over my head. "But don't we have things to do right now?" Saria peels her gaze from me and rolls her green sleeves up.

"Oh, you're right, Navi..." She places her hands on her hips and looks down at me. "Do you think you're well enough to stand?"

"Depends," I say. "What for?"

"There's some things we need to explain to you," she tells me. "Somethings you may want to hear." I snort.

"If it's going to explain why I'm here in the forest and have a huge hole in my chest, I'm good to run," I tell her, pushing the covers from my body. The Kokiri beams at me.

"Then let's get to it!" she says and hands me one of my boots. "I'm sure they're all waiting for you to arrive..."

By 'they,' Saria means to say Nabooru, that Sheikah from the Temple of Time night, Impa, a large brown owl and none other than the princess herself. They're all sitting rather impatiently by the time Saria, Navi and I arrive at the Forest Temple where Saria said they'd be waiting.

And now here I sit between Saria and Nabooru, who asks if she can switch seats away from me because she doesn't want to 'catch my disease.' I roll my eyes and disregard her, even if she's smiling at me like she's being funny. If she is, Gerudo have a weird sense of humor.

Once we're all seated in the grass and staring awkwardly at one another, Zelda clears her throat and we all look to her. She's still wearing those overalls, and it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't think of Malon and the last time I saw her, unable to help her, before Sheik and I rode off from the ranch.

Sheik!

"Hey, where's Sheik?" I ask, cutting off whatever Zelda's about to say. She gives me an evil-eye for that and smooths her outfit.

"He can't make it," she says rather tensely. "He's busy elsewhere." The others I notice roll their eyes at this and shake their heads. I wonder why.

"Doing what?" I demand at Zelda. "Why can't he make it?"

"Link, stop being rude," Navi sing-songs sternly into my ear. "Don't forget that's Princess Zelda you're talking to."

"This is the second time he's skipped out on me," I hiss back at her. "I want to know what he's doing."

"Calm down. It's not like he's abandoning you forever," Navi says dejectedly. "Why are you all uptight about it?" I roll my neck on my shoulders.

"It's just... I'm confused and I want things to starts making sense and my chest hurts and I want to go home," I say this close to whining. Navi nods considerably.

"Well, trust me, things will become quite clear if you give Zelda a chance to explain," she says and flutters to sit on my shoulders, effectively ending the conversation. Zelda clears her throat again.

"Now, as I was saying before Link so kindly interrupted me – "she glares at me and I shrug my shoulders defensively. So sue me! I interrupted her once! What a control freak. " – we're all gathered here to discuss a rather important issue at hand."

"Oh, please, skip to the part where you fill the kid in on what he's missing," Nabooru says, resting her chin in her hand like she's bored. "He deserves that much."

"Missing what? What am I missing?" I look between each of the people who for the life of me I can't figure out why are here. Zelda purses her lips.

"Fine, if that's what you want..." She looks at me with a steely gaze. "Link, what I'm about to tell you may be hard to accept at first but... Just have an open mind, okay?" She takes a deep breath. "Link, you're the Hero of Time, the salvation of Hyrule and you're – "

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," I cut her off, not caring if she glares at me. "What did you just call me?"

"Um, the Hero of Time?" she says rather confusedly. "Is that a problem?"

"Is that a problem?" I chortle, laughing hollowly. "You want to hear something funny? Last time someone called me that, I had unauthorized heart surgery. Isn't that hilarious?"

"Link..." Navi warns in my ear. I ignore her and look at Zelda.

"And want to hear something even MORE hilarious?" My voice is getting louder and everyone's staring at me but I don't care. "Because of that little incident, Malon, along with any other Castletown survivor, is now trapped working as a slave, or dead. And why? Because that Anissa chick or whatever the heck she's called was searching for a 'Hero of Time' who she so thinks is me. I think both of you are mistaken. If I was some 'hero' I would have saved those innocent people from meeting that fate." My fists are clenched and I'm red in the face and there's dead silence all around. Everyone looks at me expectantly.

"Well, he hasn't lost his old flair for wanting to save innocents," Nabooru comments, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, and here we go again. Referring to me as if you've known me before," I say. "Guys, it's getting old."

Zelda's frowning at me deeply. "Link, you have to calm down," she's saying gently. "We're all here to help you. But you're going to have to let us. Take a few deep breaths."

I reluctantly do as she says and instantly feel a bit better. A _bit_. I'm still feeling sorely confused and all of a sudden really exhausted. Navi pats my neck as if sensing this.

"Now, if you stop interrupting me long enough to say more than two sentences, then we can finally get somewhere..." She tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Alright. I'll start from the beginning... Now listen closely Link."

And so she begins to tell me some crazy story about a boy named Link.

The only reason I say that is because even if she and the others (the other sages apparently, in addition to Darunia and Ruto), tell me that the boy in the story is Link as in _me_ Link... It can't possibly be.

Because in this story, I'm some perilous hero who somehow saved all of Hyrule from an evil darkness named Ganondorf. When Zelda says the name, I shudder. Something inside me hates that name something awful.

She tells me that I went through an epic journey to free Hyrule from Ganondorf's plague by saving the sages, cleansing temples, helping people, traveling back and forth in time from child to adult.

The story could actually make some sense, seeing as though people like Navi, Sheik, Malon, the Sages and Epona are in it. I even wield the Master Sword. It also lines up with the few visions I've been having. Like when I met Navi. And the one about a tower collapsing...

However, what makes even less sense is that... as each of these sages relay this 'story' to me with their own accounts of what happened at specific times, I get this deep, foreboding feeling inside me that it isn't just a story. Something deep inside me tells me that this is very much real.

"In the end," Zelda says, "you defeated Ganondorf in his final form, a beast named Ganon..."

As soon as she says that, my vision darkens.

_I blink away the dizziness that the last blow to the head caused me. I stumble a few feet, trying to make sense of the spinning scene around me and shake my head._

_A few feet away Zelda paces back and forth on the other side of the fire-barrier, biting her nails and looking beyond nervous. Next to her, Navi flickers around tensely, trying to find a way past the barrier but comes up empty._

_I grit my teeth and turn back to Ganon who's drooling menacingly down at me. Normally, I'd make fun of him for drooling but when he's go that demonic look in his eyes, it's hard to do anything but tremble in your boots._

_But no. I'm not trembling now. I'm far past that stage. Enough being scared. I'm Link, the Hero of Time, and I'm only here to defeat Ganondorf once and for all. No, I'm way past trembling._

_I slip the Master Sword from it's holster and glower up at Ganon, who swings his sword down at me. I dodge easily, ending up far away from where's he's swinging. Now, this just getting sad. He's run out of energy, he's wounded from my stabs to his weak spot, his tail, and his fighting's getting sloppy. He's losing and he knows it._

_However, he's not quite done..._

_When I turn away from him for a mili-second, he scoops me up into his bear-like hand, squeezing me heedlessly. The Master Sword drops from my grip as I scream in ail feeling my arms go numb and all the blood rush to my feet and face._

_He's going to pop me like a flea._

_How wonderful._

_Without thinking, I open my mouth and chomp down on his hand as hard as I can, imagining it's a hunk of meat and I haven't eaten in days, which is actually true._

_He drops me like a hot potato and jumps around, shaking his hand while I land on the ground, only to have my face break my fall. Gee, and I thought I was coordinated._

_I scramble promptly on all fours to where the Master Sword lies and grab hold of it, turning to face Ganon so he doesn't have the upper-hand while I'm not looking. He's stopped flailing and is now blindly swinging his swords in every which way he can, yowling in effort._

_I hold the Hylian Shield to my face and dive beneath his thrashing swords, weaving between them and then diving between the pig's legs. I come up on the other side and dig my sword into his tail with an animistic growl._

_Ganon drops to his knees, yawling in pain. I don't pull the sword out until he's dropped to his stomach and even then I dig it in deeper before I release._

_Around us, the fire-barrier collapses and both Zelda and Navi rush to my side._

_"Link," Zelda gasps, grabbing my arm with her hand. "Are you alright?"_

_I wipe my bleeding mouth with the back of my hand and nod solemnly. "Yeah, I'm fine."_

_In front of us, Ganon grunts and tries pushing himself to his feet, only to fall back down onto his face._

_"Hurry Link!" cries Zelda. "Hurry and finish off the Dark Lord once and for all!"_

_I almost laugh at that._

_Like I need to be told twice._

_I stalk to Ganon's head and stare unforgivingly into his soulless golden eyes while he looks back up at me, grunting like he's going to try and get up again._

_Believe me, he's not._

_The next time he stands up, he'll be standing in the deepest pits of hell._

_With a ferocious, battle cry, I pull the Master Sword back with all the might I can muster, and ram it right into his forehead..._

When I come back to reality, it's like no time has passed whatsoever and for the first time, no one's giving me strange looks. That vision must've happened so fast, no one even noticed.

I, however, did.

"...By taking the Master Sword... and killing him," I finish for Zelda. "Rammed it right here" I point between my eyes. The Sages all look at me.

"How'd you know?" Zelda and Saria both ask in unison. I look at them with narrowed eyes.

"I was there. I saw it."

The Sages exchange dubious glances and then they turn those glances on me. Zelda's the one who speaks.

"You're probably wondering about that too," she says, scrubbing the back of her head with her hand. "Well, you see, after Ganondorf was defeated and sealed away, the land was at ease once again. Hyrule had been saved, thanks to you, but it was entering a new era of peace and prosperity. And peacetime is no time for hero's such as yourself."

I suddenly get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"So we – " the Sages clear their throats and look at Zelda, " – I mean, _I_, decided to right the wrongs I had created seven years before... And so I sent you back in time by seven years, to the day you would have met Navi and left the Kokiri Forest, to relive the seven years you never got while asleep in the Temple of Time."

I stare at her.

I stare at her _hard_.

"So you... I have already lived out these past seven years before?" I ask hollowly. Zelda nods.

"It was for the best what I did. You deserved a life you never got. It was foolish of me to do that to you, but I'm glad I was able to fix the errors I had created," she says. I keep staring at her.

"So when you sent me back, I'm just taking and wild stab here but, you erased my memories too, right?" I ask. "That's why I don't remember anything?" She nods yet again.

"Correct, Link. Lately, however, it seems events have triggered memories which sleep within your mind. Don't worry, they'll all come back with due time now that you know."

"Make sense now Link?" Nabooru says who's taken out a scimitar and started polishing it. "You're a right minded Alzheimer's victim." I disregard her.

"Did I know...?" I ask Zelda, looking down at the grass beneath me. "That when you sent me back everything would be lost?"

"You did," she says. "In fact, it was your idea."

The Sages all groan, excepting Impa who hasn't said a single word this whole time. Funny... she kind of reminds me of Sheik somehow.

Zelda silences the groans with a stern look and folds her hands over her lap.

"Do you have any questions?" she asks. I look at her incredulously.

"Understatement of the year," I say. "All I have are questions."

"Then ask a few. I'll be glad to clear up anything you want," Zelda says.

"Well, for starters... How does Anissa know I'm the 'Hero of Time' or whatever? And why'd she try killing me?"

Impa finally opens her mouth to speak.

"Ganondorf's been sealed up in the Sacred Realm for years now," she says. "We should be safe... but we aren't. This new threat of Lorule, we all can't help but think that Ganondorf and them are interconnected."

I stare at the silver-haired woman disbelievingly. "Interconnected? How so...?"

"You see, when you killed Ganondorf... He was pretty upset," Nabooru answers. I grunt. Well, I suppose I would be too if someone drove a sword through my forehead and banished me for all eternity. "There's no doubt in any of our minds that if he got the chance, he'd kill you."

I bite my cheek and look at the Gerudo. "Thanks. That makes me feel all fuzzy inside. Guy I killed out for revenge. Very pleasant."

"You don't understand," Navi cuts in, as if she's talking to a little kid. I cross my arms but let it go. "We think Ganondorf's raising an army of Lorulians to attack Hyrule to get back on us for what you did to him seven years ago. He's regaining his strength, slowly but surely, and he's no doubt planning on breaking out of his seal to destroy what he couldn't before."

A shiver runs through me, though it's not even cold out. Great. That's great news. Demonic beast and his buddies out for blood. _My_ blood.

"That's why Anissa knows your name," Zelda says. "She's probably working for Ganondorf, and got orders to kill you so when he does return, there's no one to stop him this time. They've already gotten Darunia and Ruto... Who's to say we're not next?"

I draw in a sharp breath and cross my arms at all of them.

"You know, this whole conversation's really got me down in the dumps. Bad news after bad news. Isn't there something nice you can tell me?" I ask, looking between each of them.

"Not really," Zelda says. "Except for the fact that things in Hyrule are getting bad again. As in, civil war bad again." I throw my hands up in the air.

"That's not good news!" I shout, voice cracking embarrassingly. Navi snickers. "That's even worse!"

"It's only as bad as you make it," Impa says evenly. "Remember, a dark mind in a soulful body does nothing. Yet, a bright mind in a withering vessel can amount to things far greater than itself." I regard her with a skeptical look.

"Maybe if I understood a word of that, I could appreciate it," I say. "Sadly, I don't. Any other suggestions?"

Impa rolls her eyes and looks to Zelda. "You didn't happen to erase his brain altogether did you? He's got an IQ of a rock. And at least rocks know how to not look stupid."

Navi and Nabooru burst out in laughter while Saria giggles behind her finger tips and that owl perched on the tree flaps its swings in amusement. Even Zelda's hiding a smile. I glare at all of them.

"Okay, it wasn't _that_ funny," I say blushing profusely. "Ahem... can we move on please?"

They stop laughing, but they're still smiling when Zelda says, "Well, there's nothing really to move on to. That's about it."

I exhale and stare up at the clouds. 'That's about it,' she says. Like it's nothing. Yeah. Right.

"So what's the plan then?" I ask, not lowering my gaze from the white balls of fluff. "You say I'm the hero, what am I supposed to do? Just magically wave my hand and make it all go away?"

"If it were that easy, we wouldn't be here right now," Zelda sighs. "I'm not really sure what the plan is, but I think we should start by convincing the people of Hyrule to fight on our side if Lorule attacks." I look to her.

"Isn't that obvious enough? Wouldn't Hyrule stick together against Lorule? That's only logical," I say and cross my arms.

"Like Zelda said, Hyrule isn't doing a too well job of 'sticking together' right now as it is," Nabooru interjects. "My people, the Gerudo, are still sore over the fact they never got to finish what they started back in Hyrule's civil war. We've signed a peace treaty with the Hylians, but as time wears on, that gets more and more useless. I fear they may ignore the treaty and attack anyway."

"So I've got to convince the Gerudo to fight alongside us and not Ganondorf and Lorule?" I ask bemusedly. "To go against their own king? Sounds nice and easy." Nabooru scoffs.

"The Gerudo are loyal to the ends of the earth. But that doesn't mean that they won't do what's right," she hisses, bristling. I hold my hands up.

"I'm sorry, I just don't think a race of fearless warriors is going to listen to little ol' me," I tell her.

"Then prove to them that they should," she says. I sigh and shove my face into my hands, rubbing my skin with my gloveless fingers. All I've done recently is sleep, yet I feel so tired...

"May I be excused?" I ask politely (that's a first), standing up and brushing myself off. I don't wait for a response before I walk away from the group towards a glade of trees. I plop down against one and close my eyes, feeling overwhelmed. I asked for answers... I didn't know I'd be getting this. I wish I _wasn't_ getting this.

There's the sound of rustling behind me, like someone's approaching but I don't have to look to see it's Zelda. She sits down next to me and leans against the tree too. I open my eyes to look at her.

"How are you coping?" she asks gently, looking at me with her deep blue eyes. "I know it can be quite overbearing to hear all at once..."

"You think?" I snap crankily. Then I wince. "Sorry..." I give my head a vigorous shake. "I'm just... lost. Part of me thinks I'm dreaming or this is some idiotic joke. The other part knows it's real. And both of them are at war inside of me." She nods slowly, turning to look at a few butterflies swooping through the air.

"This talk of war... It's all so serious. I woke up not even five days ago as just a delivery boy. Now I'm some high-ranked hero who everyone's depending on. I mean, that's my job right? I'm the one who's responsible for taking care of all this?"

"Well, yeah, but you're not alone. You've got me and the Sages too. And half of Hyrule if Lorule does attack," the princess says. I laugh hollowly.

"That's a relief. A dancing Goron, a dominating Zora, a mumbo-jumbo Sheikah and then... you. A crazy, bossy, princess in overalls." She punches me in the arm.

"Shut up," she says but she's obviously trying to hold back her own laughter. Her face lights up. "Oh, hey, wait! Look what I brought for you!" She turns around and rummages around behind her while I crane my neck to see what she's doing. When she turns back around, she's holding a blue sheath inscribed with intricate golden designs. She passes it to me.

"Since you're the Hero of Time and all, I think it's probably suitable for you to have this," she says while I remove the Master Sword from its sheath. I admire the perfectly _(molded, but not that word... I can't think of it because I'm exhausted! BWHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHHA) and my reflection in the blade. Blond hair, blue eyes, pointy ears. I still look like a kid. How am I supposed to be this hero?

I sheath the sword.

"It's very pretty," I say. "But I've no use for it. I don't even know how to handle a sword." Zelda, for some reason, smiles at this.

"Trust me, you do. It's up there somewhere." She points to my head. "Just gotta search for it." I look at her.

"You know, besides you trying to shove me all over all the time, you're not half as bad as you look."

She scoffs and says, "You know, besides you being blockheaded, arrogant and sarcastic all the time, you're not half bad as you look." I grin.

"Touché."

We're quiet after that for a couple seconds until she breaks the silence.

"You know... I always knew we weren't going to be safe forever. I knew Ganondorf would try something funny again. And I knew that when he did, I'd have to find you and tell you about what I did, and how I totally screwed your life up, since you are the only person who can defeat Ganondorf. I just didn't think you'd take it so well." I frown darkly at her.

"What do you mean you'd have to find me? What, did you think you could just send me back in time and then call me when you need me?" Her smile turns into that of a grimace.

"I... That's not what I meant," she says, looking at me. I glare back at her.

"So you were only going to come to me and tell me about how you jacked up my life if you needed to? If Ganondorf never came back, you would've just let me live my life not knowing what had really happened?" My voice is getting more and more agitated as I go on. Maybe I should stop... "Do you think you can just use me, princess?"

"I-I... No!" she stutters for the right words. "Link, it's not like that. I planned on telling you..." She trails off.

"Oh yeah, you planned on telling me. Trust me, if I hadn't even delivered that damn package to you, none of this would be happening." My voice is full of bitterness and I've pulled away from Zelda, sitting rigid and tense. She creases her eyebrows.

"That's not true. This would have happened no matter what! Anissa and Ijin would have found you by yourself and if I wasn't there to help you, you'd be dead right now!" she spits equally as bitter.

"Well, I guess I can thank you for that too! Right up on the list with thanks-for-erasing-my-memories-and-sending-me-back-in-time and thanks-for-letting-my-family-be-captured and thanks-for-letting-Malon-be-taken-too! And you totally screwed up my life and thought it'd be okay! And you didn't even plan on ever telling me." I shove away form her entirely. "Thanks for everything Princess!"

She looks at me with fury and scorn. "What I did kept you alive! You're here because of me!"

"And if I remember correctly, _you're_ here because _I_ saved you from Ganondorf!" I shout. "And if you're the person you all say I am, I wouldn't have needed your help anyway!" She pushes herself to her feet and crosses her arms down at me.

"Fine then," she says coolly. "If you don't need me, then I'll leave. I can see you can handle yourself fairly." She shifts her weight and frowns. "Join us once you've calmed down."

With that, she stomps back off the way she came. I watch her as she leaves.

"Brilliant Link. Really, just brilliant," Navi says, fluttering up to my face. "You're such an ass."

"Me?" I gasp. "She's the one who skewed everything for me! I'm missing seven years of my life, and it's all her fault. I shouldn't have let her send me back."

"This hasn't been easy for her either," Navi criticizes. "She's had to go through a total of fourteen years of being without you, and she remembers every second of it. How do you think she feels about that?"

"If she feels so bad about being without me, she shouldn't have sent me back," I say bluntly. "It's her problem."

"I think you should apologize," Navi says, crossing her arms. "As in, right now."

"Psssh, like that's happening. I'm not ready to speak to her quite yet," I say, standing up. I sling the Master Sword's sheath across my back. It feels oddly comfortable and right. "And I won't be for another couple hours."

"Where are you going to go?" Navi asks, zipping up in front of my face. She looks deep into my eyes. "Don't you dare leave this forest. Hyrule Field is crawling with Moblins who would love to make you their dog food. Not to mention Anissa and Ijin are out there somewhere." I roll my eyes.

"Yes, mother hen, Navi. I won't leave the forest. I'm just going for a quick walk in the Lost Woods. To clear my head." Navi bites her lip and then nods slowly.

"Fine, but DON'T leave or you'll be in heaps in trouble!" she threatens.

"Oh what are you going to do? Sing me to death or something?" I snort.

She mutters something before zipping back under my hat, leaving me in silence as I enter the Lost Woods.

I pull the fairy ocarina out and press it to my lips, beginning to play the Song of Time, which has been stuck in my head every since that one night. I wonder what happened to the Ocarina of Time Zelda gave me.

I shake my head. I'm not thinking about Zelda right now. Anything but that. I'll just get angry all over again.

Eventually, my feet lead where I'm going and I just follow obediently, too lost in my music to even care where I'm going. It's not like I'll get lost. I know these woods like the back of my hand.

Suddenly, music other than my ocarina floats through the breeze, sounding sweet and haunting at the same time. I pull the ocarina away and listen closely to where the music's coming from. It's not being played on any instrument I know... Not a harp, a flute, ocarina or anything else...

Intrigued, I follow the sound of the notes, walking through parts of the Lost Woods I don't recognize. I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a place I don't recognize. Normally, that would be cause for panic, but the music's just so enticing...

At last I come across a dead end, the path not continuing any further than this open glad. The music swells up all around me, to the point it's the only thing I can hear. I get a bad feeling deep inside me.

I loosen the Master Sword in it's grip and take a few anxious steps forward. Navi's come out of my hat and now hovers above my shoulder, looking around just as suspiciously as I am.

"Do these woods look familiar to you?" I ask her. She shakes her blue hair.

"No. I don't recognize it at all. And I know every part of these woods." I watch her shiver. "Link, we should head back. I get a bad feeling about this."

"Wait just a minute," I say, creeping forward some more. Only something on the ground stops me. Or rather, the actual ground itself.

Instead of a leaf-covered dirt floor, the ground is a swirling pool of midnight purple waves, lit with all the colors of the rainbow swarming about. I gasp and take a step back.

"Link! What is that?!" Navi squeals in horror, griping my hat. "Let's go back now!"

Even though leaving would be the smart thing to do, I stay planted.

"What do you think it is?" I ask, full of curiosity. "It's so pretty..."

"Link! Snap out of it!" Navi latches onto my nose. "We need to go back right now! I don't like this one little bit!"

I peel her away from my face and look at the swimming colors. I bend over and reach a hand out to touch it, only for the purple waves to rise above the ground like fog and then latch onto my hand. I gasp.

"It-it has me!" I shout in anguish. "It's holding me! Navi, help!"

The tiny fairy grabs onto the back of my tunic and starts tugging furiously, but obviously can do nothing. I shout in fear.

"It's pulling me down!" I exclaim. "I... I can't get out!" I try tugging but the fog doesn't budge. It's got my hand in a death grip and it's not letting go.

Try as I might to escape, both me and Navi end up getting trapped and immersed by the fog, screaming at the tops of our lungs for help. Of course, no one comes.

Then my face is yanked down by the fog and I can't really breath right. Great, I'm going to drown to death. Or suffocate. Whatever. What's the difference? I'm dying anyway.

Then I become weightless, and I feel like I'm free falling through the air. I spin around to see the trees of the Lost Woods disappear as the purple waves fill in the hole I fell into. A hole? Is that what this is? Am I falling down into somewhere?

Before I can think about it more, I hit the ground hard, a few bad words escaping my lips. Because I've landed hard on my stomach, searing pain ebbing through my chest. I lay there, face in the grass for several minutes, not daring to move a muscle. I've probably broken every bone in my body. Moving isn't wise.

Navi, who had wings so she could just lightly flutter own into a landing unlike my totally ungraceful belly-flop, gasps above me.

"Link... Link I think you need to see this..." she says sounding like shes in a trance. I groan and push myself up onto my elbows which are thankfully not broken, only bruised.

"What...?" I mutter. "I'm in quite some pain here..." I trail off as I see what Navi's looking at.

In the distance, a huge castle sprawls in the silhouette of a completely black sky, with orange tinted clouds and things that look like stars woven between them.

The Castle however is more breathtaking than the sky by far. It's huge and totally black, with pointy towers and bright orange fires burning atop the spires. Below it a town sits, looking oddly familiar, yet unknown entirely, with buildings like the castle: dark and black.

With an awed gasp, it dawns on me.

The portals were sealed over seventeen years ago... Yet Zelda said they were slowly beginning to reopen. Slowly losing their restraint power...

I think I've just stumbled into the land of Lorule.


End file.
